Ellen Pao resigned as interim chief executive officer of Reddit after a user revolt at the online forum, the company announced.
Steve Huffman, a Reddit co-founder, is taking over as CEO, the San Francisco-based company said Friday. Mr. Huffman, chief technology officer at the travel startup Hipmunk, has had no official role for several years at Reddit.
"First, I'm super excited. Second I am terrified," Mr. Huffman said in an interview.
Ms. Pao apologized earlier this week to the Reddit community after a mass online protest over the firing of Victoria Taylor, who staffed the popular Ask Me Anything feature. Ms. Pao has faced vitriol from Reddit users called for her firing.
The uproar didn't spur the move, which was a "mutual decision over a number of weeks," Sam Altman, a Reddit board member, said in an interview.
Ms. Pao also called the decision mutual.
"We had different views in the potential growth rate in users for Reddit this year," she said in an interview. "We couldn't come to an agreement on that and I decided to step down."
--Bloomberg News