Facebook chief marketing officer Antonio Lucio is stepping down after two years in the role, he announced over the weekend.
A strong diversity advocate, Lucio cited a “challenging year for all” and stated his desire “to dedicate 100% of my time to diversity, inclusion and equity”, noting that the world is in a “historical inflection point regarding racial justice”.
While Lucio said he is grateful to Facebook and its mission to connect people during Covid-19, he suggested that the platform and its leadership still had work to do.
“Striking the right balance between preserving freedom of speech and eliminating hateful speech on the platforms is a generation-defining question that must continue to be addressed. I know the company and its leadership agree on the centrality of this important task,” Lucio wrote in a LinkedIn post.
While not revealing his next professional role, Lucio said he will devote it to helping marketing and advertising industries accelerate transformation and drive diversity-related change.
Lucio joined Facebook as CMO in August 2018, succeeding Gary Briggs, who had retired in January. Before that, he spent three years as CMO at HP, where he had responsibility including branding, demand generation, strategic events and global communications.
In 2016, Lucio began a diversity push at HP, setting targets for agency partners for the number of women and people of ethnic-minority background working on the business. His top five roster agencies – BBDO, Fred & Farid, Giant Spoon, PHD and Edelman – saw a 20-point increase in women in creative and account leadership roles.
A version of this story first appeared on Campaign Asia-Pacific.
