Pinterest’s (PINS) long-time chief executive officer (CEO) Ben Silbermann is stepping down and will be replaced by former Google (GOOGL) executive Bill Ready.
The leadership change comes as social media platform Pinterest pivots to focus on a new e-commerce strategy and move away from its previous advertising-based business model.
Bill Ready, age 42, previously ran commerce and payment operations at Google and held senior leadership roles at online payment giant PayPal (PYPL).
Ben Silbermann is stepping down from Pinterest after 12 years in the CEO role, which began when he co-founded the company back in 2010. Pinterest today has more than 430 million monthly active users.
Silbermann, age 39, will transition to the newly created role of executive chairman and keep his board seat at Pinterest.
Pinterest stock is down 45% this year at $19.70 U.S. per share. The company’s stock rallied 5% on news of the CEO change.
Bill Ready will receive an annual salary of $400,000 U.S. and be eligible for a stock option award of 8.6 million Class A shares of Pinterest.
