YouTube Hires Amazon Veteran Toni Reid to Oversee YouTube Shorts, Gaming, Livestreaming and Community Products (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorToni Reid, after 24 years at Amazon, is joining YouTube as VP of product management to lead the video platform’s Emerging Experiences and Community team.In the role, she’ll oversee YouTube Shorts — the TikTok-like short-form video format YouTube has seen gain major traction — as well as YouTube Gaming, livestreaming and community products.Reid, who starts Monday (April 25), reports to Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer.
She takes over for Chris Jaffe, who after three years in the role took a new position last month as YouTube chief design officer, continuing to report to Mohan.Reid most recently served as Amazon’s VP of Alexa experience and Echo devices.
In 2014, she was part of the team that launched the Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers. Reid is credited with establishing Alexa’s personality and expanding Alexa to new countries.
In earlier roles at the ecommerce giant, she was responsible for launching display advertising for amazon.com, the Dash instant-buying device (since discontinued), and the X-ray entertainment information feature on Amazon’s Prime Video. “Toni brings an impressive track record of developing high-profile initiatives from the ground up, advocating for users, and building diverse, high-performing teams,” Mohan said in a statement to Variety.
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