A major leadership change is underway at WhatsApp, with long-time chief Will Cathcart stepping down from the top role after leading the messaging platform since 2019. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Cathcart will transition to a new position within the company focused on product development as part of a broader leadership reshuffle. The leadership transition comes as Meta names CRED founder Kunal Shah as WhatsApp's new global head. Cathcart spent nearly a decade (2010-2019) at Meta, and during his tenure, WhatsApp's global user base crossed 3 billion users. Earlier, he worked with Google from 2006 to 2010, focusing on anti-spam technology. At Meta, he worked on News Feed and helped in introducing Mobile advertising, later becoming vice president of Facebook overseeing video, groups, marketplace and stories. Cathcart was widely recognised within Meta for championing user privacy. Under him, the platform recently rolled out Meta's AI assistant powered by its latest model, Muse Spak, and he also built privacy-focussed features such as incognito chat. The AI push, which Cathcart identified as WhatsApp's largest market and biggest user base for Meta AI.