Facebook Has A New Virtual Reality Chief

Facebook Inc FB's co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a public post on his Facebook page that the computer scientist Hugo Barra will lead all of its virtual reality initiatives, including Oculus Rift.

Who's Barra And What Will He Bring To Facebook's VR?

As noted by Recode, Barra will be leaving his job at the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi and will work at Facebook under the title of vice president of VR. The publication noted that Barra's hiring at Facebook is a "high-profile hire," as the executive is well known in the tech industry.

Barra was also a former top executive at Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google's Android division and left for China in 2013 where he was tasked with leading the company's international expansion efforts which also includes a stand-alone VR device that doesn't require a computer or mobile phone to work.

Barra will replace Oculus' CEO Brendan Iribe, who said in December he will step down to head the company's PC division.

"Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform," Zuckerberg said in his post. "They'll enable us to experience completely new things and be more creative than ever before. Hugo is going to help build that future, and I'm looking forward to having him on our team."

Barra responded to Zuckerberg's post in the comment section and stated that it has always been a dream of his to work in AR and VR back when the topic was merely figments of science fiction.

Image Credit: By leweb3 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/leweb3/11330979143, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons