Chris Cox (manager)

Last updated
Chris Cox
Chris Cox, Meta.jpg
Born (1982-09-02) September 2, 1982 (age 43)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Education Stanford University
Occupation CPO at Meta Platforms (2005—2019, 2020—)
Spouse
Visra Vichit-Vadakan
​
​
(m. 2010)​

Christopher Cox is an American software engineer and corporate executive. Cox has been chief product officer at Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) since 2020, having previously been in the position from 2014 to 2019. Cox initially joined Facebook in 2005 as one of the company's initial software engineers. [1]

Contents

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. [2] Cox studied at Stanford University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in artificial intelligence. [3] He later enrolled in a symbolic systems graduate program at Stanford before dropping out to join Facebook in 2005. [4] [5] [6]

Career

Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as one of its first fifteen software engineers and played a role in the development of News Feed. [7] [1] He held various executive roles before being promoted to chief product officer in 2014. [8]

In May 2018, he was put in charge of the company's apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. [9]

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. [10]

He returned to the company as chief product officer in June 2020. [11] [12] Bloomberg noted that Cox "was one of the first Facebook executives that most employees met as part of their orientation training" prior to his initial resignation. [13]

Personal life

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

Recognition

In 2019, he was listed on the Forbes 40 Under 40 list. [16] In 2011, he was included on Fast Company's list of "Most Creative People in Business". [17]

References

  1. 1 2 Constine, Josh (14 March 2019). "Facebook loses CPO Chris Cox and WhatsApp VP Chris Daniels". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Constine, Josh (2014-05-02). "Facebook Promotes VP Of Product Chris Cox To Chief Product Officer, But No Organizational Change". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  4. ↑ "Facebook's Chris Cox: A very likable pitchman". Los Angeles Times. 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  5. ↑ 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
  6. ↑ "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
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ "Company Info - Facebook Newsroom".
  9. ↑ Wagner, Kurt (2018-05-08). "Chris Cox is becoming Facebook's most important executive not named Mark Zuckerberg". Recode. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  10. ↑ Thompson, Nicholas (March 14, 2019). "Facebook's head of product leaves after privacy pivot". Wired.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ Horwitz, Jeff (2020-06-11). "Zuckerberg Lieutenant Returns to Facebook, a Year After Departure". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  13. ↑ Wagner, Kurt (2020-06-11). "Zuckerberg Friend Cox Returns to Facebook as Product Chief". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
  14. ↑ "Facebook CPO Donates $1 Million to East Palo Alto Nonprofit". NBC Bay Area. 9 March 2015. 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.
  16. ↑ "40 under 40 - 27. Chris Cox, Mike Schroepfer, and Bret Taylor (27) - FORTUNE". archive.fortune.com. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  17. ↑ "Most Creative People in Business 2011". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-03-06.

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