Mike Isaac

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High-Profile Facebook Comms VP Joe Lockhart Departs

Joe Lockhart, vice president of global communications at Facebook, will soon leave the company, AllThingsD has learned.

His departure comes nearly 15 months after he joined the company in July of last year, where he worked alongside Marne Levine, another Beltway insider who has served Facebook as VP of global public policy since 2010.

Lockhart is perhaps most famous for his time spent inside the White House as communications secretary for President Bill Clinton during the latter half of Clinton’s second term in office. After the administration ended, Lockhart went on to become one of the founding members of the Glover Park Group, a D.C.-based consultancy firm which has worked on campaigns for Microsoft, Verizon and Pfizer.

The decision comes in part because of Lockhart’s desire not to move to California full-time and to stay on the East Coast, where he has continued to reside throughout his employment at Facebook, a source familiar with the matter says.

Caryn Marooney, VP of technical communications, remains Facebook’s highest-ranking PR official, directly under Elliot Schrage, who is VP of communications and public policy for the company.

The departure comes at something of an awkward time for Facebook, a company largely under the scrutiny of Wall Street and public shareholders after a rough-and-tumble IPO and months of flagging stock prices.

Lockhart follows a string of other high-profile departures, including former head of platform partnerships Ethan Beard, and former director of platform marketing Katie Mitic, who both announced their exits on the same day in August. In June, Facebook CTO Bret Taylor also announced his departure.

Sources say the parting is on amicable terms, and Lockhart may still play a role as a consultant to Facebook from Washington D.C.

“The company understands Joe’s desire to remain on the East Coast, and looks forward to continuing to work with him and benefit from his counsel,” a Facebook spokeswoman told AllThingsD.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google