Bluesky’s CEO Jay Graber is stepping down.

Jay Graber, who took the helm as the first CEO of Bluesky in 2021 when the platform transitioned from a Twitter research initiative to an independent entity, is stepping down from her role. As previously reported, venture capitalist and former Automattic CEO Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO while the search for a permanent successor is underway. Graber will shift to the position of Chief Innovation Officer, where she will concentrate on developing new features for a platform that has grown from 30 million users last year to 40 million today.

Graber noted, “Toni believes deeply in the Bluesky mission and has been an advisor to the company and to me personally for over a year. Both Automattic and True Ventures are also investors in Bluesky, supporting the evolution of a more open, user-driven internet.”

In his own blog post, Schneider shared that he was initially doubtful about decentralized social networks but became a proponent after meeting Graber and COO Rose Wang two years ago. “The commitment to an open, user-controlled social web isn’t going anywhere. You own your identity, your data, your graph. If anything, we’re doubling down…. Open platforms only thrive when third-party builders can trust them. We will continue to work on earning that trust and moving towards a fully decentralized system,” Schneider wrote.