A senior Facebook exec in the UK is leaving to head up Snapchat's European office

Claire Valoti, the director of agency partnerships at Facebook in the UK, is leaving the company to join Snapchat to head up its European operation, Campaign reports.

Snapchat recently hired a collection of high-profile executives to join its team in Europe. Those hires include:

• Jonathan Davies, BuzzFeed's former director of brand partnerships for Europe.
• Camilla Schilbach, former GameAnalytics business development director, and before that the head of AOL Advertising UK group.
• Tariq Slim, Twitter's former head of telco and tech for the UK.
• Adrian King, a former member of Twitter UK's ad sales team.

We reported back in October that Snapchat was still looking for someone to head up its new office. Valoti has worked at Facebook since 2013, which she joined after leaving telecoms company Weve. She's joing Snapchat as general manager of UK sales.

Snapchat provided this statement to Business Insider: "We're thrilled to have Claire join the Snapchat family and help grow our team and efforts in the UK."

The person leading Snapchat's expansion in Europe is Imran Kahn, the company's chief strategy officer. He's been meeting potential candidates for the top role for months now, and the process has reportedly been ongoing since the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, which took place in the south of France in June.

Snapchat has still yet to open its own office in the UK. "Snapchat Limited" first incorporated as a private limited company in the UK in September, registered to an office at 90 Fetter Lane, London, according to documents registered with Companies House. However, that's likely an address listed for accounting purposes only.

Facebook said in a statement to Campaign that "Claire leaves Facebook at the end of next week and we thank her for all the contribution Claire has made to the team and FB over the last two years."