Facebook is reportedly losing one of its very high-profile acquihires – Samuel W. Lessin, vice president of product management, who is parting ways with the social networking giant on August 29, after 4 years.
Lessin in a Facebook post announced “with quite mixed emotions” that August 29, 2014 will be his last day at Facebook to his “esteemed colleagues.” He noted that there isn’t any kind of immediate plans other than taking some time off for his hobbies including skiing and kite-surfing. He also added that he intends to help his wife Jessica Lessin with her tech news publication, the Information.
Lessin joined Facebook in 2010, with his fellow Harvard alumnus – the Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acquiring his simple private sharing start-up – Drop.io in all-stock deal. Since then, as a key Facebook employee, Lessin had worked on various products including the Timeline feature and has served in important product development roles.
In his post, Lessin said that he is “extremely proud and thankful” for having the “opportunity to play a small role in a chapter or two of the grand adventure that is Facebook,” adding that being a part of this community in the last few years has been “an unbelievable privilege and honor.”
Lessin, stressing that Facebook is a “very important part of the future,” said that he sincerely believes that the company carries “the power to do unbelievable good in our world.” He said that he is still a firm believer that it’s just “1% done.”
He said that he chose to write a relatively short post, rather than posting a “cool 10,000 word” post as a “parting salvo” is his usual style. Lessin said he will not go with the “traditional parting ‘colleague-tagging’ exercise” for 2 reasons – there are far too many people to tag and also that it would be besides the point to call out people.
Making a reference to Hook as goodbye, Lessin had his closing words “‘That Was A Great Game’. Hurray!”
