• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 1, 2012

Ethan Beard, Facebook's director of platform partnerships, is the latest top executive to leave the company in the wake of its initial public offering in May. Beard, who joined Facebook in 2008, publicly announced his departure in an Inside Facebook post today, according to the Inside Facebook blog. He didn't indicate what his next step will be.

Beard's exit follows only a week after Carl Sjogreen announced he was leaving Facebook. The social network's CTO, Bret Taylor, gave notice in June and former corporate communications director Barry Schnitt joined Pinterest the same month in a similar capacity.