COO Emily White leaves Snapchat

Snapchat’s high-profile chief operating officer, Emily White, has left, the Venice company confirmed Friday.

“Emily is a talented executive and we thank her for her many contributions to Snapchat,” spokeswoman Mary Ritti said.

White was a big hire for the ephemeral-photo-messaging company, leaving her job as director of business operations for Instagram to join Snapchat Inc. as COO in December 2013. She previously worked for Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, tech news website Re/code reported that White’s departure was spurred by Snapchat co-founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel wanting more hands-on control over the fast-growing start-up, which conflicted with White’s desire for a greater leadership role.

In her role as COO, White was second in command behind Spiegel and had been responsible for areas of the company including sales, human resources and business operations.

According to Re/code sources, White has long had ambitions to be a CEO herself and took the COO role at Snapchat because of its broad responsibilities.

Snapchat did not comment on whether it will replace White.