Fairfield University's Dolan School of Business is pleased to announce Matt Idema, COO of WhatsApp, as the speaker for the first Dolan Dean’s Executive Forum on Tuesday, September 21 from 12 – 1 p.m. The Dolan Dean’s Executive Forum series engages thought leaders and distinguished executives to discuss issues that have a profound impact on business and societies. This event will be held as a Zoom webinar; registration is required.

WhatsApp is a global mobile messenger app with approximately two billion monthly active users. As COO, Idema leads the company's business strategy and operations including monetization, growth, partnerships, and customer teams. During the forum Idema will discuss his professional journey and provide insight into Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, trends within the technology sector, and social responsibility and privacy, among other topics. Idema will share his thoughts on how to start and build successful careers in technology, as well as business opportunities within tech.

“We look forward to hearing from Matt Idema as he discusses some of the interesting advances in the social media tech space, and to hearing his thoughts on how to start and build successful careers,” said forum moderator Nazuk Sharma, PhD, assistant professor of marketing.

Idema joined Facebook in 2011 where he was most recently vice president of Global Product Marketing and led Facebook's business products. His team was responsible for identifying new market opportunities and growing Facebook's advertising products across all platforms, including News Feed, Core Ads, Pages, and Messenger. Idema previously held several senior leadership positions at Yahoo, including vice president of the company’s local businesses. He holds a degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Save the date to hear from JetBlue CFO Ursula Hurley ’04 who will headline the second Dolan Dean’s Executive Forum on Tuesday, November 16, from 5 - 6 p.m. The event will be held at Fairfield Dolan and will also be livestreamed. For more information please contact dolancommunication@fairfield.edu.