Snap Hires YouTube Alum Francis Roberts as Senior Talent Manager

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Francis Roberts, previously a manager at YouTube working with some of the platform’s biggest creators, has joined Snap as senior manager of digital talent.

Roberts starts at the Snapchat parent company Monday, May 18. Based in L.A., he will report to Jim Shepherd, Snap’s head of talent partnerships. Most recently, Roberts was at YouTube, where he was the strategic partner manager for top creators and worked with talent including Liza Koshy, the Try Guys and Jackie Aina.

At Snap, Roberts will oversee relationships with digital-native talent. In that role, he also will support content opportunities for creators, such as identifying opportunities to work with them to develop Snap’s Creator Shows and Snap Originals, along with community content like Snap Me, in which the platform’s stars answer fan questions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Francis as a member of our Talent Partnerships team,” Shepherd said. “His experience working with top creators and his relationships in the industry will greatly contribute to our mission of delivering even more compelling opportunities to creators on Snapchat in 2020 and beyond.”

Roberts joins Snap after spending eight years at Google. At the internet giant, before moving to the YouTube team in 2017, he was principal analytical lead in Google’s large-customer sales division. Prior to joining Google in 2012, he was founder and CEO of BE LLC, a New York-based event planning and digital media firm. Before that worked as an analyst at Barclays Capital. Roberts holds a bachelor’s degree in international business with a focus on Asia-Pacific studies from Howard University.