Vanessa Pappas — TikTok

Chief Operating Officer

THE LATEST: Pappas, who is based in TikTok’s Culver City office, took over as interim global head of the social media giant last August following the departure of chief executive Kevin Mayer. In April, she was named chief operating officer, reporting to new CEO Shouzi Chew, a senior exec at TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. In her interim role last year, Pappas helped the business survive executive orders by then-president Donald Trump calling for the TikTok app to be banned in the U.S. unless it was sold to an American company. ByteDance successfully challenged the orders in court.
BACKGROUND: Pappas served as TikTok’s general manager for North America, Australia and New Zealand prior to taking over as interim global head in August. Before joining TikTok she was global head of creative insights at YouTube. Pappas received a master’s degree in media studies from the New School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Queensland.
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