Elon Musk has confirmed that Linda Yaccarino, head of advertising, will be Twitter’s next CEO.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s new CEO,” Musk said. tweeted Friday. “@LindaYacc will primarily focus on business operations, while I will focus on product design and new technologies.”
Yaccarino, a longtime advertising executive, previously served as global president of advertising and partnerships at NBC. She announced her resignation from NBCUniversal on Friday morning.
Musk told Twitter users on Thursday that he was bringing in a female CEO to lead the company. He didn’t reveal who the new leader would be, but articles in trade publications soon surfaced stating Yaccarino would be joining the platform.
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After Musk confirmed that Yaccarino had been hired, conservative users took to Twitter on Friday to complain. They called the ad executive a “social justice warrior” and prompted the #RIPTwitter hashtag to trend.
Despite their objections, analysts say hiring Yaccarino is likely to have a positive impact on Twitter.
“If anyone can translate Musk’s vision into benefits for marketers, they can,” said Mark DiMassimo, founder and chief creative officer of ad agency DiGo. The Associated Press.
“It’s an extremely reassuring decision,” added DiMassimo.
Advertisers have bailed out Twitter since Musk bought the company for $44 billion and resumed operations in late 2022. Stars including Whoopi Goldberg, Shonda Rhimes, Elton John and Jim Carrey quit Twitter as hate speech escalated. swept across Musk’s watch.
The billionaire businessman has cut thousands of jobs at the social media giant, including members of the platform’s trust and safety team. It cut tech support, unbanned former President Donald Trump, and started charging $8 a month for blue tick verification.
A wave of the remaining employees resigned after Musk asked them to work “long, high-intensity hours” as part of his “extremely hardcore” Twitter 2.0 plan or leave the company.
In April, the Tesla and SpaceX leader spoke with Yaccarino at a marketing conference in Miami Beach, Florida.
[The two are shown above]
She told Musk, known for spreading conspiracy theories on Twitter, that advertisers wanted to see him spend less time tweeting.
“Are you going to commit to being a little more specific and not tweeting after 3 a.m.? People in this room would love to see that,” she said.
Musk replied: “I would aspire to tweet less after 3am”
Yaccarino graduated from Penn State University in 1985. She previously worked at Turner Broadcasting as executive vice president and chief operating officer of advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions. She also partnered with the Biden administration in 2021 to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign featuring Pope Francis. In 2018, she was appointed to the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition under the Trump administration.
