Facebook revealed Andrew Bosworth, head of its Reality Labs AR and VR unit (pictured), will replace Mike Schroepfer as CTO in 2022, with the latter stepping back to a more advisory role.

In a statement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained Schroepfer was moving to a role as senior fellow, which will involve helping in recruitment of technical staff and work on specific projects.

Facebook’s outgoing CTO added the move would allow him to dedicate more time to his family and personal philanthropic efforts while also staying connected to the company for “key initiatives”.

He has been in the role 13 years.

Bosworth is credited with creating the company’s AR and VR unit now known as Facebook Reality Labs. He will continue to lead the division, which also includes responsibility for Oculus and Portal consumer hardware, as part of his CTO role.

Zuckerberg added Schroepfer had “played a critical role in almost everything we’ve done, from building and scaling our teams to mentoring many of our key leaders, and from helping us develop new technologies like AI and VR to operating our infrastructure and business services at global scale”.