Inside Facebook

Joining an ever-growing list of executives and engineers to leave Google for Facebook (perhaps as much as 10% of the company), Elliot Schrage has just joined Facebook as Vice President of Communications and Public Policy, Kara Swisher reports.  Schrage was formerly Google’s Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs.

Mark Zuckerberg announced announced the hire to company employees late tonight from India. In an email which was leaked to Swisher, Zuckerberg wrote,

I’m writing from India to share with you the good news that Elliot Schrage will be joining our management team as VP Communications and Public Policy. In this role, he will be responsible for developing the key messages we want people to understand about our products, our business and the growing global importance of social networking and what we do. The goal here is to help people understand how the internet can strengthen people’s relationships. Elliot will direct our efforts to work with users, media, governments and other entities around the world to ensure that Facebook’s policies are transparent, responsive, effective and are recognized as being those things…

This is a really important role for us and one that we’ve been trying to find the right person for a while. Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness, and honest internal communications.

Facebook faces big communication challenges with users, media, businesses, developers, and governments, and will continue to build out its communication efforts in the coming year. Schrage will report to Sheryl Sandberg, recently hired from Google as Facebook’s new COO.