Pinterest hires former Google exec Francoise Brougher as its first COO

Image-based searching and sharing website Pinterest has hired Francoise Brougher, a former Google executive as its first chief operating officer. She was most recently business lead at Square and prior to that VP of SMB global sales and operations at Google.

Brougher, whose appointment is effective March 12, will be based out of Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco and report to Chief Executive Officer Ben Silbermann.

The first COO announcement is part of the maturation of a company as it nears an initial public offering.

Brougher joined Square in 2013 after working at Google for more than 8 years, and as VP of Business Strategy at Charles Schwab prior to that. Brougher’s wealth of experience in running businesses — including those geared toward helping small businesses get off the ground — is clearly a slot that Pinterest needed.

Pinterest has more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide collecting and pinning photos related to cooking, designing, travel and other interests on its website.