Greg Sandoval/Business Insider
- Mike Schroepfer is leaving his role as CTO next year, being replaced by Andrew Bosworth.
- Bosworth is Facebook's leader on all things AR and VR.
- "This is a difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook and how excited I am about the future we are building together," Schroepfer said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Facebook's chief technology officer and longtime Facebook employee is stepping down from the role, headed to a new part-time position in a much different role.
Mike Schroepfer said Wednesday in a post to his own Facebook page that he is leaving next year his role as CTO, which he's held since 2013. He will be replaced by Andrew Bosworth, currently the leader of Facebook's augmented and virtual reality division and one of the earliest execs at the company, further signalling the Facebook's push into that business. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
"This is a difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook and how excited I am about the future we are building together," Schroepfer wrote. But he is not leaving the company entirely. He said he is to become a "senior fellow" within Facebook next year, a first-of-its-kind role at the company.
As for his replacement, Bosworth, Schroepfer pointed out that he is responsible for the creation of Facebook's entire AR and VR organization, thus far, now called Facebook Realty Labs, "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," Schroepfer added. "I'm confident and grateful for Boz's leadership and the deep and talented technical bench of leaders we have at the helm."
Bosworth has been with Facebook since 2006. A representative of Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.
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