Alexis Ohanian is coming back to Reddit.
The Reddit co-founder announced today that he is returning to the company he helped start nearly a decade ago and will assume the role of executive chairman. Meanwhile, CEO Yishan Wong is stepping down and will be replaced by interim CEO Ellen Pao, who was previously Reddit’s business and partnerships strategist.
Ohanian left Reddit in 2010 to pursue non-profit projects and write his book, which he discussed with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop one year ago in Seattle. But now, nine years after starting Reddit, he’s back in a full-time leadership position again and will be responsible for marketing, communications, strategy, and community.
“Now at a little over nine years old, with thousands of communities, reddit is at an amazing inflection point and I’m thrilled to return to help it achieve all that it can,” Ohanian wrote. “We’ve got a lot of work to do: mobile, user experience, and community tools are on the top of our list, but as always, we can’t do it without you.”
As for Wong’s resignation, Y Combinator President Sam Altman, a Reddit adviser, wrote that there was a disagreement with the board about a new office location.
“To be clear, though, we didn’t ask or suggest that he resign — he decided to when we didn’t approve the new office plan,” Altman wrote.
Altman, who served as Reddit’s CEO for eight days, noted his excitement for Ohanian, who will return to a company that is tracking 174 million unique page views per month and recently raised a $50 million Series B round.
“There is a long history of founders returning to companies and doing great things,” Altman wrote. “Alexis probably knows the reddit community better than anyone else on the planet. He had the original product vision for the company and I’m excited he’ll get to finish the job. Founders are able to set the vision for their companies with an authority no one else can.”
