Facebook‘s Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor plans to leave the social networking company this summer to start a new company, he said in a post on Facebook Friday.

“I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be leaving Facebook later this summer,” Taylor wrote. “I’m sad to be leaving, but I’m excited to be starting a company with my friend Kevin Gibbs.”

Taylor joined Facebook when it acquired his company FriendFeed in 2009, reportedly for about $50 million in cash and stock. FriendFeed was known for its real-time aggregation of social media sites and as a service for people to have conversations about content.

Taylor may not be as well known as some other executives at Facebook such as CEO Mark Zuckerbergand COO Sheryl Sandberg but Taylor is known in technology circles for having worked on major projects at Facebook and for previously having worked at Google on Google Maps. He didn’t provide details about his new startup in his statement.

As for what will happen with Facebook, Taylor said in the statement that he is “extremely confident” in the leadership that’s in place. Two Facebook executives, Mike Vernal and Cory Ondreijka, will be filling Taylor’s role in managing Facebook’s platform and mobile strategy, respectively, according to AllThingsD.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has talked about how he wants entrepreneurial-minded employees–”hackers”–and often acquires small companies for top talent. The flip side of that impulse is that those employees may eventually want to leave to start their own companies. If they leave, Zuckerberg has said in the past, he can live with that, because he likes having those kinds of people on board.

The change comes as Facebook comes off its rocky initial public offering. The company Thursday filed a motion to consolidate a number of lawsuits against the company. In the filing, Facebook also placed some blame for the IPO with Nasdaq’s technical problems on the day of the offering.

Facebook closed Friday up 6.09% to $30.01, but remains far below its $38 offering price.

Here’s Taylor’s full statement:

I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be leaving Facebook later this summer. I’m sad to be leaving, but I’m excited to be starting a company with my friend Kevin Gibbs.

While a transition like this is never easy, I’m extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place. I’m very proud of our recent accomplishments in our platform and mobile products, from Open Graph and App Center to Facebook Camera and our iOS integration. I’m even more excited for the world to see all the amazing things these teams have coming.

I’ve learned more than I ever imagined in my time at Facebook. I’m also extremely grateful for my relationship with all of the amazing people I’ve worked with here.

I want to give a special thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. You’ve not only been my boss for the past three years, but my mentor and one of my closest friends.

 

Thanks to all of you at Facebook for the most incredible three years of my life. –Forbes