Pulse News

**Exclusive**

**TikTok Executives Bail as Ban Deadline Looms**

By Kaya Yurieff, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang

Mar 12, 2025, 3:07pm PDT

The groups of buyers circling TikTok's U.S. operations are likely to find it a more svelte company than it was a year ago, after a string of senior managers left the popular video app. At least eight TikTok executives, including music chief Ole Obermann, global head of litigation Emily Stubbs, and Sameer Singh, head of North American ad sales, have left TikTok or announced their departures since the beginning of the year, according to people with knowledge of their departures and the executives' LinkedIn posts. In the fall, Marni Levine, head of TikTok Shop's U.S. operations for small and medium businesses, also quietly left the company.

**The Takeaway**

- At least eight executives have departed TikTok this year ahead of a potential U.S. ban

- TikTok continues to hire U.S. employees and has 2,200 current job openings

- Interested TikTok buyers try to determine the structure of a potential acquisition

Their departures come amid deep uncertainty about TikTok's fate in the U.S., as President Donald Trump oversees a sales process for the company in response to a law passed last year requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent, ByteDance, or be banned. On Sunday, President Trump said he was dealing with "four different groups" of potential buyers for TikTok.

One possibility is that a consortium of U.S. companies will operate a new entity owning components of TikTok U.S. Interested buyers are trying to figure out what will be in such an entity, including whether it will house TikTok U.S.'s users, brand, advertising, and user interface, according to three people familiar with the talks. Another question is whether the acquirer would give the U.S. government some economic interest in the new entity, as Trump has proposed, said two people.

The timing on a deal is unclear, although the Chinese government will likely play a major role. That means any TikTok deal will likely be tied into tariff discussions between the U.S. and China. Trump in January delayed implementation of the divest-or-ban law until April 5, and he recently said he'd be willing to extend the deadline further if necessary. TikTok's U.S. business could be worth $50 billion to $70 billion, based on projections for its revenue. A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment.

**Growing Pains**

Uncertainty about TikTok's fate is the overriding reason for the exodus of executives, but other factors are also contributing. Some executives joined TikTok's predecessor Musical.ly or soon after when TikTok operated more as a scrappy startup than as the roughly 7,000-person U.S. corporation it is today. Others have left as part of multiple reorganizations that shifted power to employees close to CEO Shou Zi Chew. He has signaled more cuts to managerial roles, telling staff in February the company needed to "remove unnecessary layers."

The senior exits are only a small portion of the executives who are heads of units or have more senior positions, and TikTok has appointed replacements for some, like ex-music chief Obermann. Still, they add to the departures of more than 1,000 other U.S. TikTok employees since July, according to Live Data Technologies, which tracks personnel movements based on public information about job changes. TikTok had almost double the U.S. departure rate compared to active employees of big tech companies such as Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google from July 2024 to January 2025, according to Live Data's data.

"You're working for a massive startup with a very uncertain exit,” said Niya Dragova, CEO and co-founder of Candor, a startup that helps tech employees manage their equity. That is "past the risk tolerance for people who are midcareer or high level and want to know how they're going to retire."

**Logging Off**

Select leaders who have left TikTok and ByteDance in the U.S. since the start of 2025:

- Ole Obermann - ByteDance Global Head of Music Business Development; announced departure

- Adrienne Lahens - Former TikTok Global Head of Content Strategy and Operations

- Sameer Singh - Former TikTok Head of Ad Sales for North America; now HT Media Group's Group Chief Executive Officer

- Emily Stubbs - Former TikTok Global Head of Litigation; now Discord VP and Deputy General Counsel

- Tracy Elizabeth - Former TikTok Head of Family Safety and Developmental Health (Trust and Safety)

- Kate Barney - Former ByteDance Global Head of HR and Corporate Services; now AI ad tech company Smartfly's Chief People Officer

- Jack Bamberger - Former TikTok U.S. General Manager of Agency Business

- Soniya Monga - Former TikTok Head of U.S. Agency Partnerships; now Pinterest VP of Global Agency Sales

Other U.S.-based TikTok managers who left recently include Mabel Wong, who worked on the product as well as the trust and safety teams, and Shawn Wu, a longtime human resources manager. Both of them left in January, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Some joined the company around the time of the last ban threat during Trump's first term and have fought for four years to keep the company alive. As the current battle intensifies, they feel it's time to move on and look for their next role instead of continuing a struggle that still has no end in sight, according to a manager who left late last year.

Meanwhile, power has been consolidating at the company, as a few of Chew's most loyal executives have expanded their responsibilities. When Chief Operating Officer V Pappas left in 2023, Adam Presser, Chew's right-hand man, replaced Pappas with a different title: head of operations. Then in early 2024, Presser also started overseeing the trust and safety team after its head stepped down.

In September, TikTok's global head of marketing, Kate Jhaveri, left the company as part of a reorganization that combined the company's marketing and communications teams under one leader, Zenia Mucha. Other departures last fall included Kudzi Chikumbu, a creator marketing executive, and Drew Kirchhoff, a longtime product manager who joined TikTok in 2018.

At the same time, TikTok's efforts to recruit new employees haven't stopped. The company currently has more than 2,200 jobs open in U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, though some roles are based in multiple cities, inflating the count. Employees have also been promoting open roles on their teams in public LinkedIn posts.

"We are hiring at TikTok! Join us in a dynamic environment where together we will bring joy and inspire creativity," wrote one employee on LinkedIn. The post and the job description made no mention of the potential ban.

Anissa Gardizy and Sri Muppidi contributed to this report.

Kaya Yurieff is Team Leader of creator economy coverage at The Information. She previously worked at CNN. Based in New York, she can be reached at kaya@theinformation.com or on Twitter at @kyurieff.

Juro Osawa is a reporter covering tech in Asia, from Alibaba and Tencent to startups. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal. He is based in Hong Kong and can be found on Twitter at @JuroOsawa.

Jing Yang is the Asia Bureau Chief at The Information. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News. She is based in Hong Kong and can be found on Twitter @jingyanghk.