Meta expands Nicola Mendelsohn’s role as head of global ad relationships

Meta has expanded the role of Nicola Mendelsohn, vice-president of its global business group, giving her overall responsibility for the social giant's advertiser and agency relationships.

Mendelsohn, who joined Facebook nearly 10 years ago, now becomes head of global business group, in charge of global partnerships and engineering (a unit that builds tools for clients), leading a "client-facing organisation that supports our partners and their growth globally". She reports to chief operating officer Javier Olivan.

She will continue to oversee Meta's relationships with marketers and agencies for all the business' platforms, notably Facebook and Instagram. Meta said in a post that "integrating these teams will strengthen our ads business, create operational efficiencies and improve execution in how we support our partners".

Mendelsohn's promotion is the result of the departure later this year of chief business officer Marne Levine and the introduction of a new structure.

This has led Meta to also promote vice-president of content and global operations and chief operating officer of Instagram Justin Osofsky to head of online sales, operations and partnerships. He also reports to Olivan.

Mendelsohn, who is British, is a former agency executive at Karmarama and Grey. She relocated from London to New York at the end of 2021, when she stepped up from EMEA to a global role.

The latest personnel changes come after last week's news that Steve Hatch, vice-president of Northern Europe at Meta and one of Mendelsohn's top lieutenants, is to leave the business after nine years.

Meta has been undergoing significant changes in recent months and cut 11,000 jobs in November in the wake of slowing ad sales.

Olivan commended Mendelsohn for her "strong, well-earned reputation in the ad industry", while describing Osofsky as having a "unique combination of product, operations and business experience that will serve him well in this new role".

He continued: "They're both proven leaders, and we're fortunate to have them leading this important work and representing the company with our advertisers and partners."

Levine steps down from her current role on 21 February but will remain an employee of Meta until departing in the summer.

"From running global policy, to growing our Instagram business as the first COO, to leading our ads and business partnerships teams, Marne has been an incredible leader at Meta over the last 13 years. I'm grateful for our partnership, her commitment to Meta, and the energy she brought to the company every day," Olivan said.

In an interview with Campaign's US sister title, Mendelsohn hinted at a strategy to reduce the layers of middle management shortly after Meta's fourth-quarter earnings update.

Last week, in a bid to appease investors, Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to cut costs and improve productivity during the company's fourth quarter earnings release. He described 2023 as "the year of efficiency".