Irishman Colm Long is the new chief revenue officer at Flipboard

22 Oct 2014

Colm Long, who is now chief revenue officer at Flipboard

Former Facebook head of global user operations Colm Long has joined digital magazine player Flipboard as chief revenue officer.

Colm Long was instrumental in growing internet search giant Google’s EMEA operations when the company came to Ireland in 2002. Google currently employs around 2,000 people in Dublin City.

In 2008, Long spearheaded social network Facebook’s arrival in Dublin, enabling it to grow from an initial headcount of 70 people to almost 1,000 people today.

Prior to Facebook going public in 2012, Long left Dublin and became head of Facebook’s global user operations at Menlo Park in Silicon Valley, California.

Previously, Long worked in senior positions at Barclaycard International and French online stockbroker Self Trade. A native of Derry, he has a bachelor’s degree in applied linguistics from the University of Brighton in the UK.

Long is understood to have left Facebook in the past year to take time out and has been dipping his toes in the venture-capital space, leading a US$650,000 seed investment in Irish start-up PropelAd, which is led by Charlie Ardagh.

Evan Doll and Mike McCue established Flipboard in 2010, and it has since grown to be one of the most popular apps on iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.

The app has the simplicity and look and feel of a magazine but intelligently allows users to aggregate their favourite news and magazine content, along with their social media feeds.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com