Facebook Hires Former Univision Exec to Run U.S. Sales Team

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By Seth Fiegerman2013-10-01 15:15:03 UTC

Facebook has a new U.S. sales chief: David Lawenda.

Lawenda, Univision's former advertising sales president, has been named Facebook's VP of Global Sales, U.S., managing the social network's U.S. sales team and overseeing Facebook's relationship with brands and agencies across the country. He replaces Tom Arrix, who left Facebook in July after seven years with the company.

See also: This Is What Facebook's First Ads Looked Like

Lawenda takes over at a key time for Facebook as the company is reportedly working on several new ad products — including Instagram ads and video ads for the homepage — while continuing its efforts to explain the payoff of its existing ad products to advertisers.

Carolyn Everson, the Facebook marketing vice president who ran the U.S. sales team during the interim period, described Lawenda in a statement as a "proven leader," who has experience building brands both at Univision and before that working at Viacom. Lawenda, who will now report to Everson, described his goal as helping marketers transition to using Facebook's platform for digital ads.

"We intend to help every marketer use the power of Facebook to drive their business in the years ahead," Lawenda wrote in a statement. "As media consumption continues to shift to digital, and consumers recognize mobile as the first screen, our team will support clients in redefining how they market on these platforms."

Facebook generated $1.6 billion in ad revenue in the most recent quarter, up 61% from the same quarter a year earlier.

Image: Facebook

Topics: Business, Facebook, Marketing, sales, univision