As Elon Musk frees the bird, and Linda Yaccarino is set to join as new CEO, let’s have a look at who’ll be running Twitter and what this could mean for the bird and the world.
On the 12th of May, Elon Musk Tweeted that he’s hired a new CEO for Twitter. She was expected to join in about six weeks. While the announcement was seen as a positive move by Tesla’s shareholders, let’s take a moment to understand more about the new chief and Musk’s direction of travel.
The New CEO — Linda Yaccarino
A day after the above announcement, Musk named Linda Yaccarino in another Tweet.
Here’s a sneak peek into Linda’s Twitter profile.
Who’s Linda Yaccarino?
Born in Long Island, New York, Linda Yaccarino is a 59 — 60 year old American media executive. She’s the chair for global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, an American multinational and mass media conglomerate. During her journey, Yaccarino has also partnered with the Biden administration to create a Covid campaign featuring Pope Francis and chaired the future of work taskforce for World Economic Forum.
While Yaccarino hasn’t spoken of her appointment (as of writing), about three weeks ago, she was seen with Elon Musk at the MMA Global POSSIBLE conference where she shared her enthusiasm for helping Twitter 2.0 and her commitment to keeping the conversation with Elon and the other going. If you’re wondering what Twitter 2.0 is, we’ll come to that in a second.
Linda Yaccarino on LinkedIn: #ourpartnershipcommitment | 80 comments
We are thrilled to announce that our Chief Commercial Officer, Caitlin Borgman, has been shortlisted as a Programmatic…
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So, How Does It All Add Up?
After much controversy, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. Upon doing so, he took on the role of CEO and fired the top executives.
At the time of acquisition, Twitter was largely reliant on advertising revenue and Musk was keen to make changes. Some changes under his leadership include reinstating banned users, making the blue tick a paid proposition, cleaning up unused accounts and most famously, reducing the workforce by about 80% to just over 1300 people.
As mentioned above, Musk also announced plans for Twitter 2.0, which he calls ‘the application of everything,’ and embodies the spirit of an internet town square. More specifically, we’re speaking voice and video chats, encrypted direct messages, lengthy tweets, and not surprisingly, payment services!
In the midst of it all, Musk ran a poll last December asking if he should step down as Twitter CEO and majority voted yes.
Which brings us on to the announcements over the last few days where Musk abides by the results of the poll.
Summary
The way I see this, both Musk and Yaccarino have a lot to offer and the appointment signals what we hope will be a strong partnership between the two.
Per his own Tweet, Musk’s will remain engaged as Executive Chair, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) overseeing product, software and sysops while he leaves the running of the business to Linda.
What I read into this is that Musk isn’t taking his eye off the ball, but using the opportunity to focus on delivering Twitter 2.0. In the meanwhile, Yaccarino, who comes with credible experience and is committed to the vision, can help ensure that both Technology and Business work in lockstep to deliver a joined-up solution.
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Vinita Ramtri is a personal coach for financial services executives. As an industry expert, she comes with 25+ years of corporate experience where she’s held substantial leadership roles in FTSE 100 firms such as BSkyB, HSBC and Barclays, driving transformational programmes, risk management, process improvement and cost reduction. Vinita believes in the human potential and is an advocate for ongoing learning and development. For daily posts to fuel your growth, follow Vinita on LinkedIn, Medium and subscribe to her LinkedIn Newsletter. To work with Vinita as your coach, write to her on [email protected].
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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