Facebook’s Chief Product Officer Christopher Cox.
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Last June, Facebook was being rocked from the inside and out.
Protests were erupting across the U.S. after Minneapolis police were caught on camera killing George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. At Facebook, employees were demanding more from their leaders.
In particular, they were upset with how the company handled a post by President Donald Trump about protests that said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Facebook had decided to leave the post up, even though many employees were arguing that the president had violated the company’s policies on inciting violence.
Facebook executive Chris Cox had just returned to the company on June 11 after an abrupt departure in March 2019. One of Facebook’s earliest employees, the chief product officer was widely considered one of its moral and emotional leaders, with a natural charisma that stands in sharp contrast to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s awkward manner.
His return couldn’t have come at a better time. In one of his first actions that day, Cox popped into Workplace, Facebook’s internal social network, and into black@, the company’s employee resource group for black staffers. He posted a note to the group, letting them know that he felt for them and was there for them.
He was very much in tune with how the community was feeling, and his return reassured employees about the company’s leadership, one person who was at Facebook at the time told CNBC.
Though Cox may not be a household name, Facebook and Silicon Valley insiders view him at the same level as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. Cox was critical in growing Facebook from a Palo Alto start-up to one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a market cap over $700 billion. Facebook generated nearly $84.2 billion in revenue and a profit of more than $29.1 billion in 2020.
Cox is known for having a big party laugh, compassion, and humility. Before the days of the pandemic, Facebook employees often saw him taking walking meetings around campus or riding the company shuttles to work alongside everyday employees. If Zuckerberg is the company’s brain, and Sandberg keeps the business humming, Cox embodies the company’s heart and purpose, according to numerous friends and employees, some of whom asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about him.
“When you look at Chris Cox now, he’s the keeper of the culture, and the most important aspect of a company and the reason companies succeed or fail is because of the culture that they built,” said Ron Conway, an early Facebook advisor who has remained close with Cox.
Breaking up is hard to do
According to the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo Finance, Cox left after Zuckerberg decided to bring the company’s disparate messaging services closer together, and to emphasize privacy and build…
Read More: Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox: CNBC profile