Facebook Inc (FB) Top Advertising Exec Grady Burnett Quits, Join Flurry

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)  Vice President of Global Sales and operations, Grady Burnett, will leave Facebook to join analytics and advertising firm Flurry as the chief operating officer. He served Facebook for almost four and half years.

Facebook Inc (FB) Top Advertising Exec Grady Burnett Quits, Join Flurry

“Grady was a valuable member of Facebook’s team, and we wish him luck in the future,” a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) spokesperson told CNET.

Burnett has in-depth experience in ad tech

Burnett, along with COO Sheryl Sandberg, has led the development and implementation of Facebook’s advertising strategy. Further, Burnett also played an important role in enhancing the social networking site’s International sales team. Prior to Facebook, Burnett was employed with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as the director of online sales and operations. Brunett has in-depth experience in ad tech, and started work in DoubleClick, followed by Google and then Facebook.

Flurry more intriguing than Facebook

Brunett said that Flurry has been the core of the mobile revolution since its establishment and has built the only data-powered, real time ad buying and selling platform on mobile.

Based on the statement, it can inferred that Brunett is keen on working with the company that is more inclined towards mobile advertising, and Facebook was initially not that rapid in adapting the mobile advertising concept. However, the social network has been gaining rapidly in this segment in recent months.

Burnett made it clear in an interview that though he was happy working with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), he is more interested in working with a company that is primarily focused on mobile. He is impressed with the work of Flurry and says that Flurry uses data on app usage to create profiles of shared interests it calls Personas to create specific audiences segments, such as “value shoppers” and “business travelers.”

Recent high Profile Exits

Brunett joins the latest set of executives who left Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in recent months, including Gokul Rajaram (product director for ads), Tom Arrix (U.S. sales chief), Justin Shaffer, Christian Hernandez (head of European operations) and Sunita Kaur (Asia-Pacific ad director).

However, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has made some top line appointments, as well, such as hiring Gary Briggs as Chief marketing officer from Google.

There are, however, no signs that Facebook is facing any issues in its advertising operations, which has otherwise helped the company to increase its growth momentum primarily in mobile advertising. Mobile advertising has helped the Facebook shares above their Initial Public Offering price.

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