Instagram has a new head, former Facebook News Feed exec

Last week Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, the cofounders of Instagram, announced they will be departing the company due to concerns about the platform’s continuing independence at Facebook. Now Systrom and Kreiger have announced who will replace them. In a blog post, the Instagram cofounders revealed that Adam Mosseri is the new head of Instagram effective immediately.

Mosseri was formerly the VP of product at Instagram, and before that he started out as a designer at Facebook in 2008 before moving into product management. During his stint at Facebook, Mosseri worked on Mobile and News Feed. Besides overseeing the day-to-day running of Instagram, Mosseri will also be charged with appointing heads of engineering, product, and operations at Instagram.

And Systrom and Kreiger, despite their concerns over Instagram potentially losing more of its independence at Facebook, say they remain excited about Instagram’s future under Mosseri:

Since we announced our departure, many people have asked us what we hope for the future of Instagram. To us, the most important thing is keeping our community–all of you–front and center in all that Instagram does. We believe that Adam will hold true to these values and that Instagram will continue to thrive.

We remain excited for the future of Instagram in the coming years as we transition from being leaders at Instagram to being just two users in a billion. We’re confident that under Adam’s leadership, Instagram will evolve and improve and we look forward to the future of the product and community.