The most recent one was Ethan Beard. The others are Sheryl Sandberg, Justin Rosenstein, Gideon and Benjamin Yu Ling. The Director of the Department Social Media is the latest illustrious ex employee  of Google now sitting behind a Facebook desk.
 
Five super managers, an unknown number of employees and a single action: bid farewell to the Mountain View Company and a embark on brand new start at the social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

The situation  appears awkward  and consistent and some are talking   about Google  suffering from a ” Facebook problem“. Ironically, a few years ago Google itself had been the protagonist of a similar ordeal, but on the opposite side, because it was  the leaders of Microsoft who were migrating to Google, which was much smaller than it is today but full of dreams and prospects.

What makes the leader of one of the largest Internet companies  in the world move to a smaller business?

In some cases, it may have been a form of loyalty towards  Sheryl Sandberg, until recently vice president of Google online business and sales and now Chief Operating Officer of Facebook: that is how ValleyWag interpreted the Exectuive Chief Jeff Desimone moving to the Zuckerberg company.
 
But the question is not so simple, or at least, not for everyone.
One explanation that can give a general sense of  the exodus of the giant Silicon Valley is simpler than what may  be expected: the desire for adventure. Behind a manager who has reached the highest floors of one of the largest companies of the world, there may be hiddedn a man (or woman) searching for new challenges, an  intelligent, curious person  looking for a job that is always more stimulating with new problems to solve. “I am leaving Google to join Facebook” - Rosenstein informed his colleagues in 2007 – “I am joining a company that shows up once in a very long while. The Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly, brilliant people congregate and feed off each other’s genius. That company that’s doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can’t pull off”.

The desire for new stimuli may be a valid explanation for the exodus  of executives from Google to Facebook, but it can also account for  a whole series of farewells to  Mountain View that have nothing to do with Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Sacca, Gokul Rajaram, Adyn Senkut, Paul Buchheit, George Hjarik, Sataya Patel, Steffen Mueller, Vanessa Fox, Kevin “Fury” Fox, Brian Dick, Sean Dempsey, Andrea Zurek, Sean Knapp and Nathan Stoll are some of the names of former Google employees who have begun a new professional adventure. Douglas Merrill, (Google Chief Information Officer) will heed to his  passion for music and join the EMI team on April 28, becoming the head of a new division that will handle digital strategies, technology and development. While many ex-googlers are among the main investors of emerging internet companies: Zillow, Twitter, PhotoBucket, Dogster, Yapta, BrightRoll, CakeFinancial, MesmoTV, PowerSet, SayNow and BuzzLogic today are realities thanks to angel investors flying directly from Silicon Valley.

We believe that the determination of exceptional professionals from the highest floors of a giant international company has the power of opening new and  extraordinary prospects for smaller companies of which, however, their audacity and courage to act, sometimes with greater speed and a unique boldness in meeting new challenges, is impressive.
At the time Google was  the thorn in the flesh for  Microsoft and today Google can identify with Mark Zuckerberg’s company. Today’s Facebook may be the Google of tomorrow, and if the great managers with great ideas will continue with their thirst for adventure, we can rest assured that noone will ever have the  last word.
Claudia Saputo
Editor for Ciaopeople

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