Pinterest revenue chief Bill Watkins exits as ads and AI race accelerates

GREATER CHICAGO: Pinterest’s long-serving chief revenue officer Bill Watkins will step down at the end of the quarter, closing a 12-year run that tracked the platform’s transformation from a pre-revenue start-up into a global advertising business.

Watkins announced the move on LinkedIn, noting that when he joined the company in 2014 Pinterest had 200 employees, 60 million global users and no revenue. Today, he said, the platform has thousands of staff, around 600 million users and tens of thousands of advertisers that have invested billions of dollars.

The timing is notable. Watkins’ departure comes just over three weeks before Pinterest is due to report its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings on 12 February, a closely watched update after the previous quarter missed market expectations despite strong growth in monthly active users.

During his tenure, Watkins founded Pinterest’s Chicago office, led large customer sales in the west region and oversaw the commercial expansion that accompanied the company’s IPO in 2019. Under his watch, Pinterest expanded internationally, built out its advertising and programmatic offerings and, more recently, entered the AI-driven ad tools race with Performance plus, aimed at extracting more revenue from small and medium-sized businesses.

Watkins offered no clarity on his next role, but signalled a clear interest in artificial intelligence, describing it as transformative for advertising and marketing.

His exit follows a broader leadership reshuffle at Pinterest. Andréa Mallard, the company’s first chief marketing officer, left earlier this month and has since joined Microsoft AI as CMO. Her role at Pinterest has been filled by former Amazon executive Claudine Cheever. Separately, the company appointed former DoorDash CRO Lee Brown as its first chief business officer.