spatialcomputing.info

Hugo Barra, one-time head of Oculus and VP of Facebook Reality Labs partnerships, has announced that he’s left Facebook.

Barra announced the news in a Facebook post, saying that May 17th was his last day at the company. Barra says he is going on to so “something completely different” as he takes his next step in the healthcare technology space. Exactly where that will land him isn’t clear for now.

“I hope to be able to apply what I’ve learned from working in the consumer tech industry to help solve meaningful problems in the healthcare world. Looking forward to sharing more soon,” Barra says.

Barra came to Facebook in 2017 from his role as Global VP at the China-based tech giant Xiaomi, replacing Oculus’ first CEO Brendan Iribe. Iribe allegedly left the company due to Facebook’s decision to shift focus away from the PC VR Rift platform and towards standalone VR. Rift has since been shelved after the release of Rift S, the PC VR successor built in partnership with Lenovo.

During his tenure at Facebook, Barra oversaw the launch of the standalone 3DOF headset Oculus Go in 2018 as head of Oculus. Assuming his latest ultimate role in 2019, he also worked on the company’s Ray-Ban styles AR glasses.