Facebook has announced Stephen Scheeler, currently head of retail and automotive at Facebook, is the new managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand.

Scheeler, already in his third year at Facebook, will take over the role immediately and will report in to Dan Neary, vice president, Asia Pacific, Facebook.

“I’m a great believer in the Facebook culture of hiring great people and growing their careers throughout the company. Stephen has been a remarkable leader and key part of the established and successful ANZ team. Stephen has done an outstanding job and been responsible for new partnership solutions, local innovations and original thinking,” said Dan Neary, vice president, Asia Pacific, Facebook.

The old managing director, William Easton, was set to leave the social media platform to head up some new ventures in the Asian market.

Scheeler will work closely with key brands, agencies and clients to drive their business results using Facebook’s family of applications and services. Some 11 million people in Australia and two million in New Zealand use Facebook each day, more than any other site in these markets. Every day thousands of businesses also use Facebook to advertise to current and potential customers and use Facebook’s apps and tools to grow their businesses.

“There has never been a more interesting time to be in our industry. The pace of change and opportunities to innovate are phenomenal. We have an amazing team here at Facebook, a strong roadmap and a fantastic suite of apps and services. I couldn’t be more excited about the next part of the journey,” said Scheeler.

He was recently on a panel discussion about digital marketing, saying how the words ‘social’ and ‘digital’ are dying.

Scheeler is a seasoned industry strategist, with a background in start-ups, retail, telco, consumer packaged goods marketing and automotive retailing, having previously held senior marketing and innovation roles at Westfield, Lion and Subaru. He also spent time with Deloitte Australia as a management consultant working with range of industry sectors and clients.