OnlyFans, the social network known for streaming user-generated adult content, promoted its chief marketing and communications officer, Amrapali Gan, to the role of chief executive.
Ms. Gan, known as “Ami,” immediately takes over the top job from the company’s founder, Tim Stokely, who is stepping down to pursue new endeavors but will continue to work with the company as an adviser, the company said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the company didn’t immediately respond to a question about OnlyFans’ new marketing leadership.
“I am proud to assume this role,” Ms. Gan said. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with our creator community to help them maximize control over, and monetize, their content.”
Ms. Gan has been OnlyFans’ marketing chief since September 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile. She joined after a stint as vice president of marketing and publicity at Cannabis Cafe, a cannabis restaurant in West Hollywood, and before that worked in brand and communications roles for companies such as Red Bull Media House and health food and protein brand Quest Nutrition.
The British-born Mr. Stokely in 2016 founded Fenix International Ltd., owner and operator of OnlyFans, to provide a platform for content creators who wanted to make money directly from fans, rather than from advertisers. The company, which takes a 20% cut of its creators’ earnings, now hosts content from more than two million creators, who are watched by more than 180 million registered users, per a company statement.
Amrapali Gan previously worked in marketing and communications jobs in sectors ranging from cannabis to media.
Photo: OnlyFans
Celebrities such as the musician Cardi B and actor Bella Thorne have uploaded content to OnlyFans, but the platform has become known as a place to find sexually explicit content, due to its willingness to allow adult entertainers and sex workers to publish to the site.
That relationship was strained in August, when OnlyFans said it would ban sexually explicit content at what it said was the request of its banking partners and payment providers—a move it suspended one week later following an outcry from creators.
Tasked with walking the tightrope between the demands of creators and financial backers, Ms. Gan will also join a fairly small club of chief executives who started out as marketers or communications executives. It includes H&R Block’s Jeff Jones, a former CMO at Target, and Kristin Lemkau, who in 2019 was promoted to chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan Wealth Management.
Mr. Stokely chose Ms. Gan as his successor, according to a company statement.
“OnlyFans is still a new company and Ami brings a fresh energy and reflects who we are as a business,” he said in the statement.
Write to Katie Deighton at katie.deighton@wsj.com
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Appeared in the December 22, 2021, print edition as ‘Sex-Content Platform OnlyFans Gets New CEO.’
