After revealing that he would be replacing himself as CEO of Twitter last week, Elon Musk has now confirmed that Linda Yaccarino will be replacing him at the helm of the social site.
Yaccarino is the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, where she has worked for the past 12 years.
In a Tweet put out on Saturday, Musk said that Yaccarino will “focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology”.
I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.
Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
He had previously said that a “female CEO” will be starting at the company in six weeks.
Yaccarino announced the news on her LinkedIn profile yesterday. She said “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Chief Executive Officer at Twitter. I’ve long been inspired by Elon Musk’s vision to create a brighter future. Now, I’m excited to help bring that vision to Twitter and transform the business together. Everyone’s feedback is VITAL to Twitter’s future. And I’m here for all of it. Let’s please keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!”
Yaccarino studied at Penn State before working at Turner Entertainment for 15 years before joining NBCUniversal.
By replacing himself Musk is honouring a poll he put on Twitter at the end of last year, asking whether he should step down as CEO.
Of more than 17 million accounts that voted 57.7 per cent opted for him to step down.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk said at the time.
Since officially taking over the reigns of Twitter in October last year, Musk has made a number of controversial decisions such as forcing advertisers to pay for a blue tick, firing multiple members of staff and changing the logo to a dog meme.
