Sam Lessin, Facebook's vice president for product management and a Harvard confidant of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, revealed that he will be leaving the social networking company on Aug. 29.
Lessin did not reveal specific future plans in his announcement, but did say that he will be assisting Jessica Lessin, his wife, with her technology news website The Information.
"My immediate plan is to take some time for kite-surfing, skiing, and general adventuring / possibly some trouble making. This is the first time I can think of since middle school where I didn't have a very concrete next step to take in life, and I intend to not squander the opportunity," wrote Lessin in his announcement on a Facebook post.
Lessin joined Facebook back in 2010 when the company acquired his startup Drop.io, which is a service for sharing files similar to Dropbox. At the time, Lessin was considered by Facebook to be a very important hire.
Before being hired by Facebook, however, Lessin had already played a significant part in the development of Facebook. During the spring of 2004, Lessin, whose father was an influential investor, accompanied Zuckerberg around New York to talk with venture capitalists and official in the media and finance industries.
Since Lessin's move to Facebook, he has worked on several important products for the social network such as the "Timeline" feature. Lessin has also played crucial roles on several product development teams in Facebook.
The departure of Lessin shows the maturity that Facebook has been developing through the years. The inner circle of friends of Zuckerberg, which helped bring Facebook from a project in a dorm room in Harvard to its current state have mostly left the company.
Napster co-founder Sean Parker, one of Zuckerberg's earliest advisers, left Facebook in 2005. Chris Hughes, who served as an early spokesman for Facebook and a colleague of Zuckerberg at Harvard left in 2007. Dustin Moskovitsz, another of Zuckerberg's Harvard colleagues, left the company in 2008 to establish his own startup.
In Lessin's announcement, he first thanked Facebook and stated that being part of the Facebook community "has been an unbelievable privilege and honor," and has also taught him to become a better individual.
Lessin also pushes his colleagues at Facebook to "keep playing your heart out," believing in the company as a crucial piece of the world's future.
"The intellect and drive of the Facebook community is unparalleled, but in the end it is the unique spirit of the company that sets it apart and gives it the truly stunning potential to be all that we dream it can be."
