Reddit hires former Google Cloud exec as its first chief product officer

Reddit announced today that it has hired Pali Bhat, the former vice-president of product and design at Google Cloud, as the company’s first chief product officer. Bhat will be tasked with overseeing Reddit’s product organization and leading the development of tools and features for the platform.

In his new role, Bhat will report directly to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Bhat will lead and facilitate the creation of tools and features focused on bringing “community and belonging” to Reddit, the company said.

Bhat brings over 15 years of expertise in leading teams and products across developer platforms and consumer services, including several Google flagship services.

Prior to joining Reddit, Bhat held senior leadership roles for more than 10 years at Google, where he most recently led a nearly thousand-person team of engineers, product managers, user experience designers and researchers across a high-growth product suite. Bhat was also previously the vice-president of product management and led Google’s payment products globally. Before Google, Bhat held leadership positions at SAP Labs and McKinsey & Co.

“I’ve long admired Reddit and am energized to build on the work the team does to help millions of people around the world,” Bhat said, in a statement. “Being part of the Reddit team enables me to bring together my passions for community, creators, and technology platforms — and provides me a unique opportunity to contribute to Reddit as it scales its platform and expands its user community around the world.”

“Pali is as passionate as we are when it comes to fostering community and belonging,” said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in a statement. “As a part of our leadership team, he’ll build on our critical work to offer new ways for people to contribute to endless conversations that encourage authentic human connection.”

Reddit currently attracts 50 million daily active visitors and hosts 100,000 active subreddits.