Who Is Connor Hayes.

Connor Hayes is the Meta executive named head of Threads in July 2025, the first dedicated leader for an app that Instagram’s head had run alongside his main job.

People who search “connor hayes” usually want to know where he came from and what he is likely to do with Threads. The short version: he helped build the app, he spent time leading generative AI product at Meta, and he reports to Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri.

Who Connor Hayes is

Axios, which broke the news on 17 July 2025, described Hayes as a “Longtime Meta executive”. It reported that “Hayes first joined Facebook in 2011 and has served in various product roles across Meta and Instagram over the past 14 years.”

Two parts of that career stand out. Axios reported that “Hayes was part of the original team that built the first version of Threads when it launched in 2023.” It also said “He later served as Meta’s vice president of product for generative AI.”

Social Media Today, reporting the same day, added that Hayes “played a key role in growing Instagram Reels”, and that he “has also worked on creator support projects, including improved monetisation pathways and tools.”

Why Threads got its own leader

Until the appointment, Mosseri had overseen Threads since it launched, alongside Instagram. In a staff memo obtained by Axios, he explained the change: “Given Threads’ maturity, we think we need a dedicated app lead who can focus all of their time on helping Threads move forward”.

Mosseri also posted about the move on Threads itself. Social Media Today quoted him: “But Threads at this point is a real platform that I want to make sure we take as seriously as our other apps”.

The scale behind that decision was real. In his staff note, according to Axios, Mosseri said Threads had more than 350 million monthly users.

Where Threads stood when he took over

Meta launched Threads in 2023 as an offshoot of Instagram, and Axios credited access to Instagram’s user base of more than a billion people with helping it grow quickly.

Axios also cited figures from the analytics firm Similarweb for daily users of the iOS and Android apps. Between May 2024 and June 2025, Threads grew from 39 million to 120 million daily users, while X fell from 155 million to 134 million. In plain terms, Threads more than tripled its daily mobile audience in about a year, and Axios described it as “on the cusp of catching up in terms of mobile app users”.

Axios added that Meta had kept adding features that make Threads more like X, including direct messages, which rolled out earlier that same month.

How the role is set up

Hayes did not get a separate company. Axios reported that Mosseri said Hayes would “begin his new role by mid-September and will report to him directly.” Mosseri’s own post, quoted by Social Media Today, put it plainly: “The Threads team is still part of the broader Instagram team.”

Under Hayes, according to Axios, the product managers, engineers, designers, data scientists and user experience researchers working on Threads report in through him. Threads data engineers kept reporting through Brad Ruderman, Meta’s senior director of data engineering.

For anyone following Mosseri’s thinking, our profile of Adam Mosseri covers the person Hayes answers to.

What his background suggests

No source we have read sets out a product plan from Hayes, so what follows is our reading, not his roadmap.

• He built the first version of Threads, so he knows the app’s original intent.
• He led generative AI product at Meta, which makes AI features a reasonable area to watch.
• He worked on Reels growth and creator monetisation tools, which suggests attention to creators and what keeps them posting.

A social team does not need to predict his decisions. It needs to notice the direction early. When a new leader’s background points towards creators and AI, it is worth checking each Threads update against those two themes.

Why the appointment matters to brands

For brands, the appointment is a signal of commitment. Meta gave Threads a full-time leader because, in Mosseri’s words, it is “a real platform”. That makes it more reasonable to plan for Threads as a channel with its own rhythm, not as an afterthought to Instagram.

Mosseri’s note also pointed to a distinct audience. Axios reported his comment that “It’s exciting to see Threads establishing its own unique user base,” after he said more than a third of daily Threads users with connections follow different accounts on Threads than on Instagram. In our view, that is the strongest argument against simply cross-posting Instagram content to Threads.

Before committing a team’s time, a platform optimisation review can show whether your Threads output is earning its place in the plan.

How NBK thinks about Threads

We judge a platform by whether a brand can run it as a system: a clear role in the content mix, a cadence the team can sustain, and reporting that shows what it is contributing. A dedicated leader does not change that test. It does make Threads worth testing properly.

Next step

If your team is posting on Threads but cannot say what it is doing for the brand, NBK can help find the constraint in the system. Our piece on whether your brand should be on Threads is a good place to start.