2023-05-12 21:05:22
DISPATCH — Elon Musk has appointed Linda Yaccarino as head of Twitter, while retaining a significant role in the management of the social network. A choice that seems to be strategic, although quite surprising.
A few days earlier, the Tesla boss asked his followers whether or not he should take his foot off Twitter; the answer was yes. Partly because investors in Tesla (his most lucrative company) feared he was spending too much time elsewhere. Yesterday, he announced that he had found a replacement. Today, she is named and draws the spotlight to herself. And for good reason !
Linda Yaccarino does not come out of nowhere. To get this new position, she left the advertising and partnerships department of NBCUniversal, where she oversaw some $13 billion in annual advertising revenue. A very “marketing” profile, which denotes a little with Elon Musk’s aversion to advertising – which he almost banned from the network, in favor of paid subscriptions – and to the media. It is in this context that they met in mid-April, during a conference on marketing. During this interview, she defended tooth and nail the importance of advertisers and their possible “influence” on Twitter. His vision would be to make Twitter “a place where they’ll be excited to invest,” in areas such as “product development, ad safety, and content moderation.” Apparently reluctant, Elon Musk then replied: “I fear that this will provoke a negative reaction from the public”.
But Linda Yaccarino’s Curriculum Vitae doesn’t stop there. As his account says LinkedInshe has led task forces at the World Economic Forum since 2019, chaired the Ad Council and orchestrated a Covid-19 vaccination campaign within it, and was chosen by the Trump administration to lead a council President on Sport and Nutrition for two years.
Did Elon Musk name her because he and she are in sync on all these controversial topics? In view of his media brilliance, nothing is less certain! In any case, it corresponds to the themes about which he is accustomed to being talkative. So, will it remain so?
If he gives up his place as CEO, he explained that he will take the position of CTO (“chief technical officer”, the management position which oversees all the technical teams). “She will focus primarily on business, while I will take care of product design and new technologies,” he added on Twitter.
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