Chris Cox | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1982-09-02)September 2, 1982 (age 43) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Education | Stanford University |
| Occupation | CPO atMeta Platforms (2014—2019, 2020—) |
| Spouse | |
Christopher Cox is an American software engineer and corporate executive. Cox has beenchief product officer atMeta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) since 2020, having previously been in the position from 2014 to 2019. Cox initially joined Facebook in 2005 as one of the company's initial software engineers.[1]
Cox was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised inWinnetka,Illinois. He is the youngest of three children. He attendedNew Trier High School.[2] Cox studied atStanford University, receiving a bachelor’s degree insymbolic systems with a concentration inartificial intelligence.[3] He later enrolled in a symbolic systems graduate program at Stanford before dropping out to joinFacebook in 2005.[4][5][6]
Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as one of its first fifteen software engineers and played a role in the development ofNews Feed.[7][1] He held various executive roles before being promoted to chief product officer in 2014.[8]
In May 2018, he was put in charge of the company's apps including Facebook,Instagram,WhatsApp, andMessenger.[9]
In March 2019, Cox announced that he was leaving Facebook, after Zuckerberg announced plans for the company to focus on developingencrypted messaging across its applications.[10]
He returned to the company as chief product officer in June 2020.[11][12]Bloomberg noted that Cox "was one of the first Facebook executives that most employees met as part of their orientation training" prior to his initial resignation.[13]
Cox married a fellow Stanford University alum and director Visra Vichit-Vadakan in 2010.[14][15]
In 2019, he was listed on theForbes40 Under 40 list.[16] In 2011, he was included onFast Company's list of "Most Creative People in Business".[17]
Cox, who dropped out of a Stanford University graduate degree program to work with Zuckerberg when the company had just 15 engineers
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
Media related toChris Cox (Facebook) at Wikimedia Commons