Pinterest’s president and advertising boss Tim Kendall will leave the company at the end of this year, a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed on Thursday after Recode reported the news.
“Tim Kendall is leaving Pinterest after nearly six years to start his own venture. Tim has made important contributions to Pinterest and we are pleased that he will continue to serve as an advisor to the company,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Replacing Kendall as the head of the company’s advertising business will be Jon Alferness, a longtime Google exec Pinterest poached in July 2017 to serve as its head of ad products. Alferness has been promoted to senior VP of ads and commerce and will report directly to Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann.
The former director of monetization at Facebook joined Pinterest in 2012 to build up its then-nonexistent advertising business. And he has. Overseeing the launch of Promoted Pins in 2014 and the subsequent expansion of Pinterest’s ad business into search and video advertising, Kendall helped the company to generate $300 million in revenue last year.
Fortunately for Pinterest, Kendall’s replacement is particularly well-pedigreed to lead advertising for a shopping-adjacent, search-heavy platform. During his 12-year tenure at Google, Alferness worked on Google’s ad business, including search and mobile display ads, and eventually was tapped to be VP of product management for Google’s shopping and travel search platforms.
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