Ruane, who has spent the past four years as Facebook’s director of comms for UK, Ireland & Africa, declined to comment on her reason for leaving the tech media behemoth, which has experienced a torrid year in reputational terms.
Ruane joins fast-expanding auto and tech brand Tesla in a new London-based role, with a brief to lead and develop its 20-strong comms function in the EMEA region.
Starting on 26 November, Ruane will report to Dave Arnold, senior director at Tesla in California, who in turn reports to Tesla’s controversial CEO, Elon Musk.
Tesla is most famous for its electric cars but also provides solar panels and clean energy innovations.
Ruane joined Facebook in 2014 from The Walt Disney Company, where she was director of corporate comms for EMEA. She had previously led EMEA PR for Microsoft’s Xbox and had experience of the agency world from her stint as VP of Cohn & Wolfe in New York.
Facebook is now recruiting a comms director for Northern Europe to replace Ruane – listed by PRWeek as the top digital/tech PR pro in the UK – but hadn’t responded to PRWeek’s request for a comment.
Facebook's recent troubles include allegations it deliberately spread damning information about critics and competitors, which resulted in the dropping of PR agency Definers Public Affairs from its roster.
