Facebook units shuffle leaders

Facebook named new leaders for some of its main divisions, including the core social network, WhatsApp and Messenger, in the biggest management reshuffling since its founding.

The Menlo Park company also unveiled plans to explore the use of blockchain, the technology that underpins digital currencies like bitcoin. The team dedicated to blockchain will be run by David Marcus, who formerly headed the Messenger chat app.

Chris Cox, chief product officer, has been promoted to oversee apps. Will Cathcart will become head of Facebook’s social network. The former leader of news feed, Adam Mosseri, was named head of product at photo-sharing app Instagram, replacing Kevin Weil, who will join the blockchain team.

Chris Daniels, formerly in charge of the Internet.org project to spread connectivity in developing countries, will take charge of WhatsApp after the departure of co-founder Jan Koum. The management changes were initially reported by technology news site Recode.

Facebook, which has had a stable management structure for years, is making the changes after a broad review of all of its products and their privacy holes, sparked by the revelation in March of a data leak that exposed personal information on tens of millions of users.

The company also added Jeff Zients, a former Obama administration official and current CEO of the Cranemere Group, to its board, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.