Facebook, which is reportedly spending $1 billion on producing original content, has announced that Netflix chief executive officer (CEO) Reed Hastings will not rejoin the company's board as a director.

Peggy Alford, currently senior vice president of Core Markets for PayPal, will be nominated to join the board of directors, Facebook said on Friday.

Alford will become the first black woman to serve on Facebook's board, reports TechCrunch.

She has served as the chief financial officer of the non-profit Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

"Peggy is one of those rare people who's an expert across many different areas -- from business management to finance operations to product development," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Peggy said she "looks forward to working with Mark and the other directors as the company builds new and inspiring ways to help people connect and build community".

The social network is working on original programming for its Facebook Watch platform. In December, over 400 million people viewed at least one video on Facebook Watch.

Facebook's original video content ranges from Jada Pinkett Smith's popular talk show "Red Table Talk" to the drama series "Sorry For Your Loss" starring Elizabeth Olsen, reports CNN.

The company also hosts YouTube-like shows from content creators.

Facebook also announced that Erskine Bowles, a former Democratic political staffer, will leave the board.

Both Hastings and Bowles have served on the Facebook board since 2011.

First Published:Apr 13, 2019 12:32 PM IST