Chris Cox
Born40–41
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
EducationStanford University
OccupationCPO at Meta Platforms (2005—2019, 2020—)
Spouse
Visra Vichit-Vadakan
​
​
(m. 2010)​

Christopher Cox is a software engineer and chief product officer at Meta Platforms.

Early life and education

Cox was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Winnetka, Illinois. He is the youngest of three children. He attended New Trier High School,[1] and then enrolled in Stanford University where he dropped out of the symbolic systems graduate degree program to join Facebook in 2005.[2][3][4]

Career

Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as one of its first fifteen software engineers and played a role in the development of News Feed.[5][6] He held various executive roles before being promoted to chief product officer in 2014.[7]

In May 2018, he was put in charge of the company's apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.[8] In 2019, he was listed on the Forbes 40 Under 40 list,[9] as well as Fast Company's list of "Most Creative People in Business".[10]

In March 2019, Cox announced that he was leaving Facebook, after Zuckerberg announced plans for the company to focus on developing encrypted messaging across its applications.[11] He returned to the company as chief product officer in June 2020.[12][13]

Personal life

Cox married a fellow Stanford University alum and director Visra Vichit-Vadakan in 2010.[14][15]

References

  1. ^ Guynn, Jessica; Huston, John P. (May 17, 2012). "Facebook's more likable face: How a kid from New Trier tackled the social network's biggest challenges". Chicago Tribune.
  2. ^ "Facebook's Chris Cox: A very likable pitchman". Los Angeles Times. 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  3. ^ Dwoskin, Elizabeth (2019-05-19). "Facebook says its top product executive, Chris Cox, is leaving, the highest-level departure in years". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-03-01. Cox, who dropped out of a Stanford University graduate degree program to work with Zuckerberg when the company had just 15 engineers
  4. ^ "21. Chris Cox". Fast Company. 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2020-04-01. His quest took him to the legendary Symbolic Systems program at Stanford, and into post-graduate work in the university's natural language processing group
  5. ^ Parloff, Roger (2019-04-25). "Facebook's Chris Cox was more than just the world's most powerful chief product officer". Yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  6. ^ "Facebook loses CPO Chris Cox and WhatsApp VP Chris Daniels". TechCrunch. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-01.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Company Info - Facebook Newsroom".
  8. ^ Wagner, Kurt (2018-05-08). "Chris Cox is becoming Facebook's most important executive not named Mark Zuckerberg". Recode. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  9. ^ "40 under 40 - 27. Chris Cox, Mike Schroepfer, and Bret Taylor (27) - FORTUNE". archive.fortune.com. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  10. ^ "Most Creative People in Business 2011". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  11. ^ Thompson, Nicholas (March 14, 2019). "Facebook's head of product leaves after privacy pivot". Wired.
  12. ^ Isaac, Mike (2020-06-11). "Facebook Brings Back a Former Top Lieutenant to Zuckerberg". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  13. ^ Horwitz, Jeff (2020-06-11). "Zuckerberg Lieutenant Returns to Facebook, a Year After Departure". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  14. ^ "Facebook CPO Donates $1 Million to East Palo Alto Nonprofit". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  15. ^ "Zuckerberg impressed with Thai culture". AsiaOne.com. 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2020-04-01.


Media related to Chris Cox (Facebook) at Wikimedia Commons

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