Christopher Cox is an American software engineer and corporate executive. Cox has been chief product officer at

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads ...

(formerly Facebook Inc.) since 2020, having previously been in the position from 2014 to 2019. Cox initially joined Facebook in 2005 as one of the company's initial software engineers.

Early life and education

Cox was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Winnetka,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. He is the youngest of three children. He attended

New Trier High School New Trier High School (, also known as New Trier Township High School or NTHS) is a public four-year high school whose main campus for sophomores through seniors is in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, with a campus in Northfield, Illinois, for ...

. Cox studied at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, receiving a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

from. He later enrolled in a symbolic systems graduate program at Stanford before dropping out to join

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

in 2005.

Career

Cox joined Facebook in 2005 as one of its first fifteen software engineers and played a role in the development of

News Feed Facebook's Feed, formerly known as the News Feed, is a web feed feature for the social network. The feed is the primary system through which users are exposed to content posted on the network. Feed highlights information that includes profile ...

. He held various executive roles before being promoted to chief product officer in 2014. In May 2018, he was put in charge of the company's apps including Facebook,

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

, and

Messenger Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

. In March 2019, Cox announced that he was leaving Facebook, after Zuckerberg announced plans for the company to focus on developing encrypted messaging across its applications. He returned to the company as chief product officer in June 2020. ''Bloomberg'' noted that Cox "was one of the first Facebook executives that most employees met as part of their orientation training" prior to his initial resignation.

Personal life

Cox married a fellow Stanford University alum and director Visra Vichit-Vadakan in 2010.

Recognition

In 2019, he was listed on the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''40 Under 40'' list. In 2011, he was included on ''Fast Company'''s list of "Most Creative People in Business".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Chris Meta Platforms people Living people Corporate executives Stanford University alumni American software engineers People from Atlanta People from Winnetka, Illinois American technology chief executives 1982 births Engineers from Illinois New Trier High School alumni