Elon Musk says he has found new Twitter CEO

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and a top executive at Neuralink, Shivon Zilis, were among the names being discussed on an anonymous messaging app for tech employees

Updated - May 12, 2023 08:47 pm IST

Elon Musk said on May 11 he has found a new chief executive for Twitter without naming the person and that he will transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks.

Elon Musk said on May 11 he has found a new chief executive for Twitter without naming the person and that he will transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Elon Musk said on May 11 he has found a new chief executive for Twitter without naming the person and that he will transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks.

"Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!," Mr. Musk said in a tweet.

Mr. Musk has previously not named any prospective candidates, and it was unclear who he had named as his successor, although Blind, an anonymous messaging app for tech employees, was ripe with speculation.

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and a top executive at Mr. Musk' brain-chip startup Neuralink, Shivon Zilis, were among the names being discussed on Blind, according to a former employee who viewed the comments.

Top female executives from Mr. Musk's other companies, such as SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and Tesla Inc Chair Robyn Denholm could also be named, according to Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at CI Roosevelt.

Mr. Musk said he will transition to the role of Twitter's executive chair, along with the role of CTO, where he would oversee product, software & sysops.

Tesla shares closed 2.1% higher on May 11 and analysts said the announcement helped alleviate some investor concerns around Mr. Musk's active involvement at Twitter.

The electric-vehicle maker's shares had taken a hit after Mr. Musk took over Twitter in October and investors had said the move could stretch the billionaire thin.

"The boat anchor called Twitter is loosened from Mr. Musk's ankle. Now he can get back to spending more time creating value at Tesla," Craig Irwin, analyst at Roth MKM, said.

In a Twitter poll started by Mr. Musk in December, 57.5% of users voted for him to step down as CEO of the social media platform.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Mr. Musk had said then.

The billionaire's first two weeks as the new Twitter owner in October were marked by rapid change. He quickly fired Twitter's previous CEO Parag Agrawal and other senior leaders and then laid off half its staff in November.

Mr. Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist has said he took over Twitter to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

He also said he would "defeat" spam bots on the platform, a key area of his tussle with Twitter's board over his back and forth on the $44 billion buyout of the company.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.