Pinterest appoints Bill Ready as new CEO

Social media platform Pinterest has announced the appointment of Bill Ready as its new chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately.

Its former CEO, president and co-founder Ben Silbermann has transitioned to the newly created role of executive chairman.

“Building Pinterest with such a widely talented, kind and creative team has been the gift of a lifetime,” said Silbermann, in a release. “Today, Pinterest inspires hundreds of millions of people with ideas for every aspect of their lives. We’ve built a growing global business that puts the well-being of our users at the core of everything we do. And we’re just getting started.”

Ready has joined Pinterest from Google, where he served as the search platform’s president of commerce, payments and ‘Next Billion Users’. Prior to Google, Ready had also held similar leadership roles at Paypal.

Silbermann added on Ready’s appointment: “In our next chapter, we are focused on helping Pinners buy, try and act on all the great ideas they see. Bill is a great leader for this transition. He is a builder who deeply understands commerce and payments. And he shares our passion for creating a positive corner of the internet. I’m confident he’s going to be an outstanding CEO.”