Pinterest co-founder and longtime CEO Ben Silbermann has stepped down and his position taken over by Bill Ready who was previously in charge of Google’s commerce business.
Upon this announcement, shares of the social media site surged by 9% on Tuesday, as investors expect the new executive to champion the company to more e-commerce initiatives.
Silbermann has been at the helm of Pinterest since co-founding it in 2010. The company has grown enormously during his tenure, attracting more than 430 million monthly active users. The 39-year-old will now take up the newly created role of executive chairman and keep his board seat
“In our next chapter, we are focused on helping Pinners buy, try and act on all the great ideas they see,” Silbermann said. “Bill is a great leader for this transition. He is a builder who deeply understands commerce and payments,” said Silbermann.
Before joining Google where he spent the last two years running commerce and payment operations, Ready was vice president and CEO of PayPal. He will now be tasked with leading the company to new territory as Google seeks to compete with e-commerce giants such as Amazon.
At the beginning of June, Pinterest acquired The Yes, an A.I-powered shopping platform specializing in fashion brands. Ready is now expected to spearhead such efforts and others aimed at making Pinterest more competitive.
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