Snap Announces Leadership Restructuring for EMEA, Others as it Plans to cut 20% of its Workforce
Snap is restructuring its international leadership in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific regions beginning with the hiring of Ronan Harris, who has been Google’s U.K. and Ireland chief for the last five years, while also revealing plans to lay off 20% of its global workforce due to poor financial results.
The social media company has also announced that it will lay off 20% of its workforce. The job cuts, which are expected to save $500 million in annual costs, were announced as the company reports lower-than-expected revenue growth of 8%, which is “well below what we were expecting earlier this year,” according to Snap CEO, Evan Spiegel in a note to employees.
“We are restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth, and augmented reality,” Spiegel wrote, adding that many projects that don’t see revenue growth would be discontinued or receive “substantially reduced investment.”
Spiegel stated that Snap Originals, Minis, Games, and Pixy will be phased out. Zenly and Voisey, two other stand-alone applications, were already being phased out.
Snap International Leadership Restructuring
In addition to the layoffs, Spiegel stated that Snap is reorganizing its team “to better meet the challenges of the current macroeconomic environment.”
As part of the changes, Snap is establishing a new president position in each of the EMEA, Americas, and Asia-Pacific regions, with Ronan Harris, Vice President and Managing Director of UK & Ireland at Google, joining Snap as President for EMEA beginning in October.
Jerry Hunter was promoted to the chief operating officer as part of the process and was tasked with leading monetization efforts across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, as well as Snap’s Growth, Partnerships and Content, AR Enterprise, and SMB teams. He will also remain in charge of the engineering team.
“I believe Jerry’s promotion will result in both better short-term execution and a higher velocity of long-term innovation,” Spiegel said before revealing the plan to create president roles in each of the three regions, with Harris joining from Google to lead EMEA and report to Hunter.
Also, Claire Valoti, Snap’s current EMEA vice president, will serve as an advisor going forward.
Spiegel explained, “Our three regional presidents will provide in-market leadership, lead cross-functional efforts across our business, oversee local operational needs, and lead our go-to-market strategy.”
Snap announced plans last month to open a new office in Doha, Qatar, to expand its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.