Chris Cox (manager)
{{Short description|American software engineer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Chris Cox
| image = Chris Cox, Meta.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1982|09|02}}
| birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
| education = Stanford University
| occupation = CPO at Meta Platforms (2005—2019, 2020—)
| known_for =
| spouse = {{marriage|Visra Vichit-Vadakan|2010}}
| children =
| website =
}}
Christopher Cox is a software engineer and chief product officer at Meta Platforms.
Early life and education
Cox was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Winnetka, Illinois. He is the youngest of three children. He attended New Trier High School,{{Cite news |last1=Guynn |first1=Jessica |last2=Huston |first2=John P. |date=May 17, 2012 |title=Facebook's more likable face: How a kid from New Trier tackled the social network's biggest challenges |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-xpm-2012-05-17-ct-biz-0517-facebook-cox-20120517-91-story.html }} and then enrolled in Stanford University where he dropped out of the symbolic systems graduate degree program to join Facebook in 2005.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-may-12-la-fi-facebook-cox-20120512-story.html|title=Facebook's Chris Cox: A very likable pitchman|date=2012-05-12|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-29}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/14/facebook-says-its-top-product-executive-chris-cox-is-leaving-highest-level-departure-years/|title=Facebook says its top product executive, Chris Cox, is leaving, the highest-level departure in years|last=Dwoskin|first=Elizabeth|date=2019-05-19|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|access-date=2020-03-01|quote=Cox, who dropped out of a Stanford University graduate degree program to work with Zuckerberg when the company had just 15 engineers}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3018427/21-chris-cox|title=21. Chris Cox|date=2011-05-18|website=Fast Company|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01|quote=His quest took him to the legendary Symbolic Systems program at Stanford, and into post-graduate work in the university’s natural language processing group}}
Career
Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as one of its first fifteen software engineers and played a role in the development of News Feed.{{Cite web|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-chris-cox-chief-product-officer-profile-040000585.html|title=Facebook's Chris Cox was more than just the world's most powerful chief product officer|last=Parloff|first=Roger|date=2019-04-25|website=Yahoo.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01}}{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/14/chris-cox-leaves-facebook/|title=Facebook loses CPO Chris Cox and WhatsApp VP Chris Daniels|website=TechCrunch|date=14 March 2019|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01}} He held various executive roles before being promoted to chief product officer in 2014.{{cite web|url=https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/|title=Company Info - Facebook Newsroom}}
In May 2018, he was put in charge of the company's apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.{{Cite web|url=https://www.recode.net/2018/5/8/17330048/chris-cox-facebook-whatsapp-instagram-messenger-mark-zuckerberg|title=Chris Cox is becoming Facebook's most important executive not named Mark Zuckerberg|last=Wagner|first=Kurt|date=2018-05-08|website=Recode|access-date=2019-03-06}} In 2019, he was listed on the Forbes 40 Under 40 list,{{Cite web |title=40 under 40 - 27. Chris Cox, Mike Schroepfer, and Bret Taylor (27) - FORTUNE |url=https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1010/gallery.40_under_40.fortune/27.html |access-date=2019-03-06 |website=archive.fortune.com}} as well as Fast Company's list of "Most Creative People in Business".{{Cite web |title=Most Creative People in Business 2011 |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2011 |access-date=2019-03-06 |website=Fast Company |language=en-US}}
In March 2019, Cox announced that he was leaving Facebook, after Zuckerberg announced plans for the company to focus on developing encrypted messaging across its applications.{{Cite magazine|last=Thompson|first=Nicholas|date=March 14, 2019|title=Facebook's head of product leaves after privacy pivot|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/chris-cox-leaving-facebook/}} He returned to the company as chief product officer in June 2020.{{Cite news|last=Isaac|first=Mike|date=2020-06-11|title=Facebook Brings Back a Former Top Lieutenant to Zuckerberg|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/technology/facebook-chris-cox.html|access-date=2021-03-26|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Horwitz|first=Jeff|date=2020-06-11|title=Zuckerberg Lieutenant Returns to Facebook, a Year After Departure|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-to-facebook-a-year-after-departure-11591899761|access-date=2021-03-26|issn=0099-9660}}
Personal life
Cox married a fellow Stanford University alum and director Visra Vichit-Vadakan in 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/facebook-3/1986594/|title=Facebook CPO Donates $1 Million to East Palo Alto Nonprofit|website=NBC Bay Area|date=9 March 2015 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01}}{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Zuckerberg impressed with Thai culture |url=https://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20101230-255550.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110308080815/https://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20101230-255550.html |archive-date=2011-03-08 |access-date=2020-04-01 |website=AsiaOne.com}}
References
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Category:Meta Platforms people
Category:Stanford University alumni
Category:American software engineers
Category:People from Winnetka, Illinois
Category:American technology chief executives