California: As Elon Musk broke his silence on who will take over from him as Twitter CEO after a “painful” acquisition, all eyes are now on Linda Yaccarino, NBC Universal’s chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships.
Although Musk is yet to reveal the name of the upcoming female CEO who will take over in six weeks, according to The Washington Post, Yaccarino “could serve to calm advertiser fears while balancing Musk’s demand for sweeping changes to Twitter’s policies on content moderation”.
Musk’s role will transition to being executive chair and CTO, “overseeing product, software and system operations”.
Musk joined Yaccarino for an onstage interview at a marketing conference in Miami Beach in the US.
Yaccarino oversees about 2,000 workers in her role, similar to the current reduce Twitter staff after massive sacking by Musk after his $44 billion takeover late last year.
Her team oversees the monetisation strategy for Peacock, the network’s streaming service.
Yaccarino’s team has also generated more than $100 billion in ad sales and entered partnerships with companies including Apple, Snapchat, BuzzFeed, Twitter and YouTube, according to her bio.
When his followers asked him about Yaccarino’s appointment, Musk replied: “The commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged”.
In a Twitter poll last year, Musk asked his millions of followers: “Should I step down as head of Twitter?”
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he had posted.
The poll amassed more than 17 million votes, with 57.5 per cent of respondents calling for him to step aside.
However, Musk did not step down.
