Facebook hires Google executive as chief marketing officer

Facebook Inc. hired Gary Briggs, a veteran of Google Inc. and EBay Inc., to be its first chief marketing officer as the world’s largest social network seeks to expand its global brand.

Briggs, who most recently served as an adviser to the head of Google’s Motorola Mobility division, starts Monday, Facebook said in an e-mailed statement. He’s replacing Eric Antonow, who is leaving product marketing to pursue a project in education.

As the first CMO, Briggs will be responsible for building Facebook’s appeal among its 1.15 billion members and promoting new products. Since holding its initial public offering in May 2012, the company has invested in high-production advertisements including a promotional video shot by Academy Award-nominated director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and a series of clips showing off its Home application for Android phones.

“Telling the story of such an important and still very young brand is an incredible opportunity, and I cannot wait to get started,” Briggs wrote in an e-mailed statement.

Briggs began at Google in 2010, and served as a vice president of consumer marketing at the search giant before shifting to Motorola last year when it was acquired by Google. Previously, he held vice president roles at EBay and its payments unit, PayPal, as well as running the gift-card startup Plastic Jungle. The new CMO will report to Chris Cox, the Facebook’s vice president of product.

Facebook rose 2.7 percent to $39.07 at 1:14 p.m. in New York. On Aug. 2, the shares closed above $38, a price not seen since its IPO in May 2012. The company has a market capitalization of about $95 billion, compared with $300 billion for Google and $114 billion for Intel Corp.