Meta Names Chief Data Officer Alex Schultz to Lead Global Marketing

Schultz succeeds Morgan Flatley, who served as Meta's Chief Marketing Officer since 2021 and announced her departure earlier this year. The transition marks a significant leadership change as Meta continues strengthening its position across digital advertising, social media and artificial intelligence.

A Meta veteran, Schultz joined Facebook in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades building the company's growth, measurement and data capabilities. During his tenure, he has led teams focused on user growth, data science, experimentation and performance measurement, helping support Meta's expansion across international markets and multiple product platforms.

Alongside his new role, Schultz will continue serving as Chief Data Officer, making him responsible for both Meta's global marketing organisation and its data function. The combined leadership structure reflects Meta's increasing emphasis on integrating data driven decision making with brand strategy, product marketing and customer engagement.

The appointment comes at a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping how technology companies approach marketing. AI powered campaign optimisation, automated creative generation and predictive audience targeting are becoming central to digital advertising strategies. Meta has invested heavily in AI driven advertising tools that help businesses create campaigns, optimise budgets and improve performance using machine learning.

By bringing marketing and data leadership under a single executive, Meta is expected to strengthen collaboration between product, engineering and commercial teams while improving the use of first party data to guide marketing decisions. Schultz has long advocated for evidence based decision making and has frequently highlighted the role of data in understanding customer behaviour, platform performance and business growth.

Meta has expanded its AI initiatives significantly over the past year through products including Meta AI, its Llama family of large language models and new advertising tools designed to automate campaign creation and optimisation. The company has also introduced AI powered features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads as it competes with rivals including Google, OpenAI and Microsoft.

Advertising remains Meta's largest source of revenue, making marketing leadership increasingly important as businesses adopt AI enabled campaign management. The company has continued enhancing its Advantage+ advertising suite, which uses artificial intelligence to automate audience selection, creative optimisation and campaign delivery for advertisers across its platforms.

Industry observers view Schultz's appointment as part of a broader shift in technology leadership, where executives with deep expertise in data, analytics and artificial intelligence are increasingly taking on marketing responsibilities. As organisations rely more heavily on first party data, measurement frameworks and predictive modelling, the traditional boundaries between marketing and data operations continue to narrow.

As Chief Data Officer, Schultz has also played an important role in Meta's measurement and privacy initiatives, helping advertisers adapt to evolving regulations and platform policies affecting digital advertising. His experience balancing data driven marketing with changing privacy expectations is expected to remain relevant as marketers navigate a more complex digital ecosystem.

The leadership transition comes as Meta continues investing in AI infrastructure, creator tools, wearable technology and business messaging while expanding its consumer AI offerings globally. Marketing will play an important role in communicating these developments to consumers, advertisers and enterprise customers.

With Schultz now overseeing both marketing and data, Meta is reinforcing its strategy of combining artificial intelligence, first party data and customer insights to drive growth. The appointment highlights the company's continued focus on using data, automation and AI powered technologies to strengthen marketing effectiveness while supporting long term product adoption and advertiser engagement across its global platforms.