Timonium native and CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen has been hired by Facebook as head of global creative strategy.
Van Veen announced the move in a post late Wednesday on his Facebook page. InterActiveCorp, which owns the humor website, confirmed the news.
Facebook could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.
Van Veen and Josh Abramson, also from Baltimore County, launched CollegeHumor in 1999. The website is dedicated videos, photos and stories designed to get a laugh out of college-age adults.
IAC in 2006 acquired a majority share of CollegeHumor’s parent company, Connected Ventures.
Van Veen currently works as CEO of Notional, a New York City production company also under IAC’s umbrella. He will remain with the company through June, a spokesperson said.
He made entertainment headlines last fall when he married actress Allison Williams, star of HBO’s “Girls” and daughter of Brian Williams of NBC News.
Van Veen said in his Facebook post that he had enjoyed his time with CollegeHumor and IAC, but that he was looking forward to the new job.
“Aside from my high school dishwashing days, this has been the only job I’ve ever had. So while I don’t have much to compare it to, I imagine it’s been about as fulfilling as a job can be,” Van Veen wrote. “When you tell fun stories for a living with people who make you laugh, even the bad days are hard to complain about.”
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