Influential Facebook executive Sam Lessin is leaving the social networking giant, saying he plans to spend some time kite-surfing, skiing, and general adventuring / possibly some trouble making.
Lessin has been vice president of product at Facebook since the company acquired his file-sharing startup, Drop.io, in 2010. Since then, he is said to have played an important role in developing the Facebook Timeline feature and other services.
But Lessin s role at Facebook dates further back than that. As originally noted by Cnet, Lessin went to Harvard with Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg. And back in 2004, according to the book, The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick, Lessin – whose father was a well-known New York financier – took Zuckerberg around New York to meet with venture capitalists and executives in the finance and media industries.
Lessin s departure seems amicable. He posted a warm farewell note to colleagues on his Facebook account, in which he hinted that he may try his hand at starting another company eventually.
If past performance is any indication, I will be starting something soon enough… What, I don t know, but generally volume of ideas has never been much of an issue for me. I make the promise to all of you here and now that it will not be boring. With any luck most of you will think whatever I choose to build next is crazy, but maybe not.
He also mentioned that he may help his wife, former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin, with her tech news site, The Information, saying he ll offer assistance where I can and when she wants it.
(Photo from Sam Lessin s Facebook farewell)
