Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost 6 key executives at a terrible time

Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
REUTERS/Charles
Platiau/Pool

• Facebook has lost six key executives over the past
  year, following the departure of Instagram
  cofounders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
• It means CEO Mark Zuckerberg is without critical talent
  at a time when Facebook is trying to get back on its feet
  following a series of disastrous body blows.
• Without key executives around him, his job will not get
  easier. 

For years, Facebook’s top bench of executives has been a vision
of stability. Not anymore.

The abrupt resignations of Instagram cofounders, Kevin
Systrom and Mike Krieger, on Monday contributed to a growing
sense that the serenity around Mark Zuckerberg is becoming a hot
mess. 

They are the fifth and sixth major names to leave Facebook since
September last year. Here’s the full list in chronological order:

• September 2017: WhatsApp
  cofounder Brian Acton.
• April 2018: WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum.
• June 2018: VP of Communications and
  Public Policy, Elliot Schrage.
• August 2018: Chief Security Officer Alex
  Stamos.
• September 2018: Instagram
  cofounders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

It comes just months after Recode published a detailed
analysis on how no one leaves Facebook, and that the
company’s top team has overcome controversy and reshuffles to
stick around longer than the average tech CEO in the S&P 500.

All have quit for different reasons. But it stacks up to the same
problem: Zuckerberg is losing critical talent at a time when
Facebook is trying to get back on its feet following a series of
disastrous body blows.

Zuckerberg is spinning plates including data breaches, fake news,
hate speech, inappropriate content, and election interference,
all of which played a part in a disastrous second quarter for
Facebook, wiping around $120 billion of its value in a single day
of trading.

WhatsApp was blamed for
a string of lynchings sparked by hoaxes in India.
Instagram recommended potential child exploitation
through its new TV service, IGTV. Both apps are now
leaderless.

Facebook remains a target for
election meddling ahead of the US midterms in November, but
it has no head of security. And the company’s public image has
scarcely been so vulnerable, and yet its communications
chief left the building in June.

Zuckerberg is looking increasingly isolated at a time when his
personal mission is to fix Facebook. Without key executives
around him, his job will not get easier.