Facebook’s Building 8 head, Regina Dugan steps down

Facebook’s Regina Dugan, who led the company’s secretive Building 8 hardware lab, is leaving the company after just 18 months in the role.

"Today I am announcing that early next year, I will be leaving Facebook to focus on building and leading a new endeavor. I will be working with leadership over the next several months to ensure Building 8 makes a smooth transition into 2018. This was a difficult decision for me. Together, we have already done so much good work. And there are many people that I will miss, personally, and professionally," Dugan announced in a post.

At Facebook, Dugan reportedly oversaw a number of hardware efforts, none of which have actually launched, including a video chat device and a smart speaker. Before joining Facebook, Dugan was the head of Google’s Advanced Technology and Products team and was the director of DARPA before that.

Building 8 was launched last year to focus on hardware inventions, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence. The company faces new competitive threats, especially from Amazon and its Echo home speaker powered by the Alexa voice-activated digital assistant.

Facebook recently promoted Andrew Bosworth to lead all of the company's current and future hardware projects. But, there's still no word on who will lead the team at Building 8 after Dugan.