Tim Kendall, Facebook’s Director of Monetization, has left the company. This is particularly noteworthy because Kendall first joined Facebook nearly five years ago, in June 2006. He architected all of the company’s early monetization strategies, although in recent years there have been a handful of high level hires, mostly from Google, that have come in as peers or above him.
One of those more recent hires, David Fischer, sent an email out announcing his departure, saying ” it is safe to say we would not be where we are today without Tim:”
Team,
As some of you may know, Tim Kendall recently announced, in his characteristically modest way, he is leaving Facebook. Tomorrow is officially Tim’s last day.
Over more than four years at Facebook, Tim has had an incredible impact on the company, and in particular on the development of the ads business. Starting back in 2006, Tim wrote the blueprint for our monetization strategy. (You might be wondering how I know this given I haven’t been here that long, but trust me on this — Tim gave me a copy of the document when I started and strongly “advised” me to read it. It was good advice.). In all seriousness, it is safe to say we would not be where we are today without Tim.
Tim recognized early on not only that advertising could be social, but that it should be social on Facebook. What began as “sponsored stories,” social advertising has transformed the marketing business. And again, Facebook has Tim to thank.
Tim is truly a renaissance man. All of us who have worked with him have seen his strong intellect, quiet intensity, and complete focus on the mission at hand, with little tolerance for distractions or bureaucracy. He balances that with a more lively side that seems to come out after dark and has been displayed over the years at fine Palo Alto establishments like Rudy’s and the Old Pro. We will greatly miss all sides of Tim.
It’s a bittersweet honor to be the messenger of news like this. It’s never fun to say goodbye to a beloved and valuable player like Tim, but I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Tim, and to continue to advance the work that Tim started and led for us for such a big part of our company’s history.
So please join me in thanking Tim Kendall for everything he has done for Facebook as a company, and for many of us personally. We will all be watching closely to see what Tim does next and what innovations he brings to light after a well deserved break. All the best to Tim in his next adventure.
Cheers,
David
What’s next for Tim? We’re guessing Pirate or Gentleman Hacker, but no word back from him yet. Maybe he’ll just buy a small central american country with his Facebook stock proceeds and settle down. We do hear that both Zynga and Twitter may be recruiting him aggressively…