Daily Management Review

Twitter CEO Dorsey tweets Top Executives to Leave Company


01/25/2016




Twitter CEO Dorsey tweets Top Executives to Leave Company
In the biggest leadership changes since Dorsey returned as chief executive as he struggles to revive the company's growth, four senior Twitter executives are leaving the media company, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted late Sunday night.

He said that media head Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head Kevin Weil, the head of the engineering division, Alex Roetter, and HR head Brian "Skip" Schipper will all leave the company.

Dorsey praised the four executives and said he was sad to announce their departures while addressing what he called inaccurate press rumors.
 
Twitter’s stock is now trading below its IPO price amid concern the company has failed to significantly boost its user base despite a quicker pace of product rollouts under Dorsey as it has fallen nearly 50 percent since Dorsey's return last year.
 
Jason Toff, who heads Twitter's video streaming service, Vine declared in a tweet on Sunday night that he was also leaving Twitter to join Google to work on virtual reality. Dorsey's tweet did not mention him.
 
Dorsey spoke about "hiring and investing in talent" and the need for "bold rethinking" in an earnings conference call in October.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Twitter may announce other executive changes, including the recruitment of a new chief marketing officer. Sources also said that the company will announce two new board members soon.

Officer Adam Bain will take on additional responsibilities as a result of the departures, including revenue-related product teams and the HR team, Dorsey tweeted.
 
Chief Technical Officer Adam Messinger will handle the engineering team, he said.
 
 Several executives have left Twitter since co-founder Dorsey stepped in as interim CEO in July and Weil, Stanton, Schipper and Roetter are among the highest-level departures in recent months. Dorsey has since been named Twitter CEO.
  
Dorsey is yet to lay out a detailed plan of what he wants Twitter to do differently. He is also CEO of financial services technology company Square. Sources said that Dorsey plans a retreat with Twitter executives this week.
  
Although he has only served as its product head for about a year, Weil has been at Twitter since 2009. speaking at conferences and hinting at new developments on the site, such as a character count that would exceed the current 140-character limit, Weil has often served as a face of the company.
  
Dorsey has played an increasingly large role in product development as Twitter has shuffled through three product heads since 2014.
 
Tasked with growing its audience outside the United States, Stanton had joined the company in 2010. Apart from the White House and State Department, she has previously worked at Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.
 
With 2015 being the slowest year for user growth for Twitter which has just over 300 million users, was eclipsed by photo-sharing app Instagram, owned by Facebook Inc, which surpassed 400 million users last year.
  
Moments, a product developed by Weil, which showcases Twitter's best tweets and content, was launched by Dorsey since his return and has laid off 300 workers and hired former Google executive Omid Kordestani as executive chairman.
  
(Source:www.reuters.com)