The Twitterverse has been embroiled in controversies since the past year but there’s a new Twitter CEO in charge, find out who she is!
The reign of Elon Musk was tumultuous to say the least, with employees and users both calling the tech CEO giant to be unfit to run twitter. The doom of twitter seemed inevitable. Musk, to user’s surprise, launched a poll asking if he should step down (to which the majority answered “Yes”) and the prolific businessman announced late last year that he was on a search for a new CEO for Twitter.
After months of Turmoil and keeping the search very discreet, Elon Musk announced on May 11, that a new CEO is set to take office in 6 weeks without sharing the identity. The identity of the new leader was eventually revealed by the Wall Street Journal through the social media platform, which Musk confirmed. It now seems Elon Musk has taken a back seat and resigned from the position of CEO and moved to the role of chief technical officer. Who has taken the charge now? A woman, with a vast media experience. After all, who is this brave woman and why is she willing to get her hands dirty digging twitter out of its multiple controversies?
Linda announced her ascension to the throne in no uncertain words, and on twitter (where else)?
So, who is Linda Yaccarino?
From Immigrant To Top Of The Ladder
Linda was raised in an Italian-American family and credits her fortune of going to college and being inspired by her mother, a first generation Italian-American immigrant.
In an interview from 2021, Yaccarino said. “She raised three daughters and made sure that each of her daughters focused on an education, so we could each be financially independent. I continue to think that I owe her and it helps push me and drive me.”
Communication Head Honcho
Having graduated from the Penn State with a degree in Liberal Arts & Telecommunications in 1985, she first interned at NBCUniversal where she would end up climbing the ladder 20 years later. She started her first real job at Turner Entertainment, where she worked for 15 years and then left as executive vice president/COO of advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions at Turner Broadcasting.
Then she came back to NBCUniversal. There she oversaw a huge team of 2000 people and stayed for 11 years and finally left for her role at Twitter as Chairperson for Global Advertising and Partnerships.
No Time For Hobbies
Given her extensive career in the Advertising world, she is a busy, married mother of two children and has been said to have “absolutely no hobbies.”
Well, no one said becoming Twitter’s CEO will guarantee lots of free time!
The Velvet Hammer
Linda is considered a respected media veteran who is known as the “Velvet Hammer” in the advertising industry for her tough but silky smooth negotiating style to sell ad spots on tv. Journalists and Tech heads seem to think she’s just the person Elon Musk needs right now and wont be pushed over.
Political Experience
With past endeavours in politics, she has served on former President Donald Trump’s council on sports, nutrition and fitness for two terms.
Fun Fact You Might Know: Yaccarino is not afraid to challenge her boss!
Yaccarino has the courage to question the ex CEO:
Musk initiated a policy “freedom of speech but not freedom of reach,” describing it as a way to limit the visibility of hate speech and similar problems without actually removing rule-breaking tweets.
Yaccarino responded: “Does it apply to your tweets?” – If you’re familiar with Musk, you would know he has a history of posting misinformation and occasionally offensive tweets, often in the early morning hours.
Musk interestingly acknowledged that it does, offering his tweets can also be tagged with “community notes” that provide additional context to tweets. He did mention that his tweets receive no special boosts from Twitter.
“Will you agree to be more specific and not tweet after 3 am?” Yaccarino pressed on.
“I will aspire to tweet less after 3 am,” Musk replied.
The above conversation appears on Euro News.
And that, our dear folks, is Linda Yaccarino in a nutshell! Not afraid to question the boss and challenge the status quo – will she be able t rein in the big bucks and big names back on twitter? Time and twitter is the ultimate test and we’re watching and tweeting to see what happens next!
We are curious to see Linda’s journey as the new CEO and the reforms she brings. Tell us what you think of the new CEO and whether twitter might be a better place with Linda in the control room. Will it help woo back many who left the social media platform after Elon Musk took over?
