Marc Andreessen in Facebook director board

PALO ALTO, USA: Facebook 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."

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 co-founded  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.