Molly Graham, one of the top executives at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is leaving the company after just one year.
Molly Graham, the top operations exec at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is leaving
CZI has grown from 40 to more than 200 people in less than a year.
CZI
Graham joined CZI, the philanthropic investment company for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, less than a year ago to serve as VP of operations (essentially, COO).
Now Graham is leaving, but she says it’s for good reason. She recently got engaged and is moving to the east coast to live with her new fiancé. Eventually, Graham says, she’d like to start her own business, but plans to take some time off in the interim.
“Molly joined us at our infancy and helped lay a strong foundation for CZI,” Chan, who is very hands-on at CZI, said in a statement provided to Recode. “It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to someone who has been so central to our organization — it’s hard to imagine this place without her. Mark and I wish her nothing but the best as she embarks on this new adventure.”
CZI is very much a startup, but with the very un-startup-like task of properly investing and donating the Zuckerberg fortune, now valued at more than $75 billion. Since its founding in late 2015, CZI has invested in a wide range of initiatives, from education reform to disease-related research to a program that provides eye glasses to school children.
In the year since Graham joined, the company has grown from 40 people to more than 200; much of her role revolved around setting up the company’s operational structures, including integrating new employees and those who joined via acquisition.
Still, fast growth usually comes with lots of other quick changes, and Graham is not the only high-ranking exec to leave CZI in the past year. CTO Brian Pinkerton left in August, and head of communications Brent Colburn left in December.
“CZI is made up of the most extraordinary group of people I’ve ever worked with,” Graham sent in an email to colleagues Thursday morning. “I am so grateful to Mark and Priscilla for giving me the chance to help build CZI ... There is no doubt in my mind that this organization will transform the spaces that we are investing in.”
CZI’s CFO, Peggy Alford, will take over much of Graham’s role.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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