TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer has resigned from the role just months after taking charge of the California-based short video-app. He will be replaced by Vanessa Pappas, who is currently the General Manager of the company.
TikTok chief executive officer Kevin Mayer has quit, the company said in a statement. In a letter to staff, Mayer said: “It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”
Prior to this role, Mayer left one of the top jobs at The Walt Disney Co. For more than a decade, Mayer helped the world’s largest entertainment company strategize and expand its offerings. He provided the rationale for acquiring Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and the entertainment assets of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. for $71 billion in March.
His resignation comes days after TikTok and one of its employees sued US President Donald Trump’s administration over his executive order banning transactions in the US.
“We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin’s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision,” the TikTok spokeswoman said in a separate statement.
“In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” Mayer said in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. “I understand that the role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally — will look very different as a result of the U.S. administration’s action to push for a sell off of the U.S. business.”
Mayer “tried to reposition himself to ride the mobile content wave,” said Rich Greenfield at LightShed. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration appears to have made that impossible.”
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