2009 Alumnus Elevates Consumer Product Experience

Class of 2009 alumnus Greg Reiner understands the societal impact of the digital world and works to elevate the product experience as Lead Product Manager at Meta.

Greg began his career with Meta in 2018 working at the headquarters in San Francisco Bay, Calif., where he was part of the Product Development Team that focused on reducing online misinformation in the wake of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election. Five years later, Greg now lives in New York City and has advanced to the position of lead product manager. He is responsible for defining the vision for Facebook’s video-watching experience then executing to bring that vision to life in the app with his team. He leads a cross-functional team of software engineers, designers, data scientists, and researchers who work together to build and enhance the experience that connects content creators with their audience and communities.  

Greg remarked that one of the main reasons video has taken off in the last few years on social media apps such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook is because it’s easier than ever for people to create and edit videos from their phones, instead of big expensive video cameras.

“The next big video industry trend will be videos edited or even created entirely by artificial intelligence,” said Greg. “Imagine opening an app to find videos created for you and only you, by algorithms that know what you like. This is an exciting, but potentially dystopian future. The big tech companies are treading carefully to land a healthy balance - we can all help by holding the industry accountable as the future unfolds.”

As Greg celebrates his work with Meta, the string connecting Hamden Hall threads on. Greg overlapped for two years with his fellow classmate Blake Brownstein 2009, who worked at Meta as a technical recruiter. The two remain close friends and would even schedule monthly meetings at work to catch up on life events. Greg thanks Hamden Hall for not only teaching him to explore his curiosity, which has made his professional work more interesting, but instilling the importance of friendship and the lifelong bonds formed under the pines.

“Hamden Hall taught me the value of community and that with a small close-knit group of friends, everything is better.”