Facebook’s current Chief Technology Officer “Mike Schroepfer” will be stepping down his role anytime in 2022 and will be replaced with Andrew “Boz” Bosworth who currently handles his position of Vice President of AR and VR at Facebook, according to the report.
You might know that Facebook’s “News Feed” was discovered by Andrew “Boz” Bosworth in 2006 and he also worked as a developer on Microsoft Visio for two years in 2004.
When he informed Facebook about his resignation as CTO on Monday on his Facebook profile timeline, he said to the company, “This is a difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook and how excited I am about the future we are building together.”
“This change in role will allow me to dedicate more time to my family and my personal philanthropic efforts while staying deeply connected to the company working on key initiatives including recruiting and developing technical talent and continuing to foster our AI investments in critical technologies like PyTorch,” he added in his profile.
He also said in his profile timeline, “I’m excited that Andrew Bosworth (Boz) will be transitioning into the role of CTO in 2022. Boz created Facebook’s AR/VR organization, which was renamed Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) in 2020, where he drives all of Facebook’s efforts in augmented reality, virtual reality, and consumer hardware across Oculus, Portal, and Facebook Reality Labs Research.”
“These contributions are foundational components of our broader efforts to help build the metaverse. I’m confident and grateful for Boz’s leadership and the deep and talented technical bench of leaders we have at the helm.”
He continue added, “I am extraordinarily proud of what the team has achieved from unleashing the benefits of AI to bringing VR to life and connecting more people around the world through technology. I am honored to be able to continue to support Facebook’s exciting future in my role as Senior Fellow.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Schroepfer has been with Facebook since August 2008, when he joined as a vice president of engineering, and he has been the CTO since March 2013.
Schroepfer claimed in his post that his part-time job at Facebook will be as a senior fellow. Schroepfer will assist Facebook to recruit and nurture technical talent, as well as continue to advance the company’s artificial intelligence projects, according to Zuckerberg.
The shift in leadership consists of a sequence of studies noted by The Wall Street Journal last week that revealed how Facebook either ignores or fails to adequately handle a number of issues affecting users across its platforms. This includes, among other things, the impact of Instagram on teen girls’ mental health and how drug cartels in Mexico use Facebook to recruit hitmen.
The promotion of Bosworth to CTO reflects Facebook’s growing emphasis on hardware in its future ambitions. The company announced earlier this year that the virtual world, a virtual reality space where people can meet, will be a major focus for its Oculus division. The company revealed new smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban this month, as well as a new generation of Portal video-calling devices.
