Jay Graber steps down as Bluesky CEO to become chief innovation officer

Jay Graber is stepping down as CEO of Bluesky to assume a newly created chief innovation officer role. She will remain on the company’s board and help pick a successor, while a leader focused on scaling and execution takes over day-to-day operations. Born Lantian Graber in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she studied Science, Technology & Society at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her early career included work at SkuChain, building bitcoin-mining rigs, contributing to the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, and founding the events app Happening, Inc. In 2021 Jack Dorsey brought her to lead the Bluesky project; she negotiated a spin-out and incorporated Bluesky as a public benefit company with $13 million in initial funding.

Under Graber’s leadership Bluesky grew as an alternative to X and Meta, built on an open Authenticated Transfer Protocol that lets users customize moderation and carry posts between apps. Registered users rose to around 40 million by November 2025, and the platform found use among activists such as the Tesla Takedown movement.

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