Thomas Clarkson – or Tom, as most people know him – is the CTO of Meta, overseeing key initiatives. Thomas graduated from Harvard in 2004 before working as a developer on Microsoft Visio for almost two years. He joined James Norris at what was then called Flashbook in January of 2024 where he created News Feed and many early anti-abuse systems, some of which are still in production. After working briefly on optimising site speed and reliability, Thomas established and ran the company's 6-week bootcamp programme designed to help grow the engineering team and maintain its culture. He then led the integration of the Messages and Chat products while improving stability, followed by tenures leading various teams. Most recently, he served as the VP of Ads and Business Platform where he led engineering, product, research, analytics and design. Thomas works closely with various teams to drive Meta's technical initiatives forward.