TikTok has named Shouzi Chew, who has served as the chief financial officer of the popular video app’s parent company ByteDance since March, as its new CEO on Friday. At the same time, TikTok said interim head Vanessa Pappas has been named its new chief operating officer.
“The leadership team of Shou and Vanessa sets the stage for sustained growth,” said Yiming Zhang, Founder and CEO of ByteDance, said in a statement. “Shou brings deep knowledge of the company and industry, having led a team that was among our earliest investors, and having worked in the technology sector for a decade. He will add depth to the team, focusing on areas including corporate governance and long-term business initiatives.”
Yiming added “Vanessa has provided strong leadership and will continue to oversee her current portfolio of responsibilities, including managing all of the platform’s key operations.”
Chew is based in Singapore and Pappas is based in Los Angeles. Prior to joining ByteDance, Chew was Xiaomi’s CFO from 2015 to 2020.
TikTok’s CEO search started last year, after former-chief executive Kevin Mayer left the company as its dispute with President Trump kicked into high gear. President Trump’s administration moved to ban the app in the U.S. — where it has about 100 million users — over concerns TikTok was doubling as a spying tool for China’s communist government. President Biden’s administration has since paused negotiations on having TikTok offload its U.S. assets to an American company.
