Who Is Bill Ready? A Former Key Google Executive Who Is The New Pinterest CEO

Photo-sharing social media platform Pinterest has announced that Ben Silbermann is stepping down as the current CEO and he will be replaced by Bill Ready.

With over 400 million monthly active users, Pinterest has built a healthy advertising business. Image: Getty

Photo-sharing social media platform Pinterest has announced that Ben Silbermann is stepping down as the current CEO and he will be replaced by Bill Ready. The company said that co-founder, CEO and President, Silbermann will transition to the newly created role of Executive Chairman.

"Building Pinterest with such a wildly talented, kind and creative team has been the gift of a lifetime," Silbermann said in a statement.

Ready is joining Pinterest from Google, where he served as President of Commerce, Payments and Next Billion Users and oversaw Google's vision, strategy and the delivery of its commerce products. Before Google, Ready served in various senior leadership roles at PayPal, including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

"I have long admired the brand and platform that Ben and the Pinterest team have created and everything the Company stands for. I am excited to build on that foundation to further scale the Company's ecosystem and drive increased value for shareholders," Ready said.

With over 400 million monthly active users, Pinterest has built a healthy advertising business that generated strong cash flow and doubled revenue during the pandemic. In addition, Pinterest has been laser-focused on putting Pinners first, continuously improving its roadmap, investing in creators, shopping and scaling internationally.

The photo-sharing social media platform recently acquired AI-powered shopping startup 'The Yes' for an undisclosed sum; the firm was founded in 2018 by CEO Julie Bornstein, an e-commerce and fashion industry veteran and CTO, Amit Aggarwal, a tech industry veteran. Over the past several years, THE YES scaled to provide a personalised daily shopping feed built for each user that learns their style as they shop with hundreds of merchants, including global brands and discovery brands across the fashion spectrum.

The company said in a statement late on Thursday that it expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2022.

Upon the closing of the transaction, Bornstein will report to Pinterest's Co-Founder and CEO, Ben Silbermann, and will lead shopping vision and strategy across Pinterest.

"THE YES team are experts in building an end-to-end shopping experience. They share our vision of making it simple to find the right products that are personalised for you based on your taste and style," said Silbermann.

"Joining forces with Pinterest to broaden our reach utilizing such an inspirational platform is an exciting and ideal next step for our team and technology, added Bornstein. Pinterest plans to sunset the THE YES app and website to allow the merged teams to focus on technology integration and evolving its shopping vision.