Pinterest CEO Ben Silberman talks to TechCrunch’s Matthew Linley during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017 on September 18, 2017 in San Francisco, California.
Pinterest said longtime CEO Ben Silberman will step down and hand over the reins of the social media platform to Google Commerce executive Bill Reddy.
The news sent the company’s shares up 9% in extended trading on Tuesday and shifted its focus from its ad-based business model to e-commerce ventures on Pinterest.
At Ready, 42, the company gets an executive who has been running commerce and payment operations at Alphabet Inc.-owned search giant for the past two years. Reddy has also held senior leadership roles at PayPal.
His appointment marks the end of Silverman’s 12-year tenure as CEO, which began when he co-founded the company in 2010. Pinterest has grown rapidly since then and now has over 430 million monthly active users.
While Silverman, 39, will accept the newly created role of executive chairman and retain his board seat, Reddy will also join the board, the company said.
Ready will receive an annual salary of $ 400,000 and will be eligible for a stock option award to purchase about 8.6 million Class A shares.
“In our next lesson, we’re focused on helping pinners buy, try, and work on all the great ideas they see,” Silberman said.
“Bill is a great leader for this transition,” he continued.