PALO ALTO, California, June 30 /PRNewswire/ --

Facebook today announced that Marc Andreessen has joined its board of directors. Currently co-founder and chairman at Ning, Andreessen is an investor in several Internet startups.

"Marc is an industry leader, and we're fortunate to have him join our board," said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "He has experience that is relevant to Facebook in so many ways: scaling companies that are experiencing extraordinary growth, creating successful technology platforms, and building strong engineering organizations. I know Marc will be a great mentor to me and our leadership team."

"Facebook is one of the most innovative companies on the Web and it's an honor to join the board," said Andreessen. "I'm looking forward to helping the team as Facebook continues to grow."

A prominent Silicon Valley veteran, Andreessen co-founded Ning as a complementary platform to Facebook that allows people to create their own social network with any design, any feature set, and in any language. He also authored early Web browser Mosaic and was co-founder of Netscape Communications. Andreessen's experience also includes his work as CTO of AOL, as well as chairman and co-founder of Web infrastructure company Loudcloud, later named Opsware and acquired by Hewlett-Packard.

In addition to Zuckerberg, Andreessen joins current Facebook board members Jim Breyer of Accel Partners and Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund. Facebook board observers are David Sze of Greylock Partners and Paul Madera of Meritech Capital Partners.

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people's lives all around the world. Facebook is a privately-held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

Web site: http://www.facebook.com

Facebook Press Office, +1-650-543-4811, press@facebook.com