Instagram has hired a Director of Operations, the first of what we’re assuming will be many steps to monetize the photosharing app’s explosive scale and expand on its infinite potential for brand partnerships. Facebook’s Director of Mobile Partnerships, Emily White, will be moving over internally to the more than 20-person team, which just surpassed the 100 million user mark in February.
Emily White announced the hire herself on Instagram.
Described as a “really dynamic person” by one source, White was an early employee at Google, joining when the company was just at 200 employees and leaving when they were 22K. While at Google she helped build Google AdWords among other things. White joined Facebook in 2010, where she served as director of local and then mobile, primarily focused on getting Facebook on as many devices as possible — 2,500 at last count. She balances her day job with a board seat at yoga pants juggernaut Lululemon.
A protegé of Sheryl Sandberg, White will be the first well-known veteran operator brought in to shepherd the young Instagram team. She could indeed become the photo app’s Sheryl Sandberg — turning Instagram’s under-leveraged popularity into serious revenue without seriously degrading the user experience. Co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger will have time to focus on improving the mobile and web product while she takes the biz dev reins.
“I’m excited to bring Emily White onto the Instagram team,” Systrom said on the move. “As we continue to scale our operation to support over 100 million active users, her experience with partnerships and business operations will play a major role in our future success.”
