- Natalie Sherman and Shiona McCallum
- BBCNews
Elon Musk confirmed this Friday who will be the new CEO of Twitter, six months after his controversial acquisition of the company.
The billionaire said that Linda Yaccarino, former director of publicity for NBCUniversalwill be responsible for supervising the commercial operations of the social network.
Yaccarino will start working for Twitter in six weeks. Anyway, Musk will follow Being the CEO of the company and the director of the Technology area.
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the app for everything,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
In this way, Musk confirmed the decision after activating speculation after saying earlier this week that he had found the person to fill the position without revealing the identity.
The billionaire said that soon he will organize a Twitter Spaces with Yaccarino so that the public knows her better.
Musk, who bought the platform last year for $44 billion, needed someone who could run the company. for refocus your attention on your other businesseswhich include electric car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
With less than 9% of the technology companies on the list Fortune 500 led by women Yaccarino will become the rare example of a woman at the top of a large technology company.
Who is Linda Yaccarino?
A graduate of Pennsylvania State University and a resident of Long Island, just outside New York, Yaccarino, 59, worked 15 years at Turner Entertainment before joining NBCUniversalwhere he was in charge of 2,000 people and the launch of the streaming medium.
In his work, Yaccarino has been characterized by maintaining rnarrow relations with big brands, sponsors on TV shows, even the ones with a reputation for being risque like sex and the city when it premiered.
A profile published in 2005 describes her as a busy woman, married and the mother of two children, then aged 13 and 9.
“I don’t have any hobbies“, he said then.
Claire Atkinson of Business Insiderhas followed Yaccarino’s career for two decades and says his Advertising experience could help Twitterwhich has seen its ad sales plummet since its acquisition by Musk.
“If Twitter wants to monetize itself better than it has, Linda would be the person to do it,” says Atkinson. “She’s the kind of person I imagine Elon Musk needs. She’s not going to get swept away.”
Yaccarino will face the difficult challenge of running a company that has struggled to be profitable, while facing intense scrutiny over how Twitter handles the spread of information false and manages hate speech issues.
Critics raised concerns after Musk fired abuse enforcement staff and began charging for blue ticks, which previously signaled an authenticated account.
Musk has acknowledged a “massive” decline in revenuealthough he told the BBC last month that companies were coming back.
In a talk on advertising last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk and asked him what he was doing to guarantee companies that their brands would not be exposed to risk.
But there has been some instant skepticism of Yaccarino’s appointment on social media.
His role at the World Economic Forum, an organization viewed negatively as “globalist” by the right, has not been well received in some quarters.
has also been questionedto his political participation in a sports councilfitness and nutrition at the White House under former President Donald Trump.
Musk, who has also put women in senior positions at SpaceX and Tesla, is known for being a notoriously unpredictable and demanding boss.
Atkinson predicts that the two Twitter executives will face “difficult conversations” about how to handle moderation, especially with the 2024 US presidential election drawing ever closer.
“Nobody knows how long Linda will last in these difficult management situations“Atkinson says.
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Linda Yaccarino, the woman appointed by Elon Musk to run Twitter – BBC News Mundo