Pinterest is beefing up its management ranks ahead of an expected IPO filing sometime next year.

The company is hiring Facebook’s director of corporate development, Gary Johnson, to join PInterest as its head of corporate and business development. Johnson will “focus on leading strategy for key global business initiatives and growing and scaling Pinterest’s corporate development and business development teams,” according to a company announcement.

This comes as sources say Pinterest plans to take steps next year to prepare for an IPO. Johnson will report to another important pre-IPO hire: Pinterest’s CFO Todd Morgenfeld, who was previously a finance VP at Twitter after working at Silver Lake Partners as well AS Goldman Sachs.

Pinterest was valued at $12.3 billion in its most recent fundraising round over the summer of 2017. That round amounted to $150 million, which brings the total amount Pinterest has raised to nearly $1.5 billion. Pinterest is reportedly targeting $500 million in revenue this year, as it expands its revenue streams with partnerships with Target as well as Samsung.

This comes just a week after Pinterest’s president and top business exec Tim Kendall announced he’s leaving at the end of the year. The company announced he’ll be replaced by Google veteran Jon Alferness, who joined the company this past summer.

Source: Tech CNBC
Pinterest hires former Facebook exec to run deals ahead of expected IPO filing