Meditation Retreats

CEO Jack Dorsey, other top executives

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, testifies during a video hearing held by subcommittees of the US House of Representatives’ Energy and Trade Committee on “The Role of Social Media in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” on March 25, 2021 in Washington .

CNBC

After setting ambitious user growth and revenue targets last month, Twitter is preparing for what may be the most transformative phase ever.

After CEO Jack Dorsey’s leadership was scrutinized by activist investors last year, Twitter pushed ahead with the development of new features, made numerous changes, and prepared for even more. This change is due to the fact that the company dates back to the time of former President Donald Trump, who was finally retired from service in January.

On the way to a new phase, Twitter leads this in 2021.

Jack Dorsey: Founder and CEO

Despite being CEO, Dorsey gets checked out a lot from Twitter. Accuse his dual role as CEO of Square, his tendency to take off for weeks at meditation retreats, his talk of moving to Africa, and his weird looks that include tattoos, piercings and a magical beard. A recent example came when the platform decided to permanently ban Donald Trump – Dorsey was reportedly on vacation on an island in French Polynesia when the fateful decision was made.

People on Twitter say Dorsey is far from checked out. He is known for empowering and dealing with his lieutenants on important issues, as well as handling minor details that are normally not expected of a CEO, such as writing his own comments before testifying in front of Congress .

Dorsey helped invent Twitter in 2006 when he was one of the few employees at Obvious Corporation, the company that preceded him. Dorsey was the original CEO of Twitter but was ousted from office in 2008 and returned to Twitter as interim CEO in June 2015. A few months later, he was appointed permanent CEO.

The company has seen its ups and downs since its return, but is generally on the upside. The company’s share price has increased more than 70% since June 2015, and annual sales increased nearly 68% from $ 2.22 billion in 2015 to $ 3.72 billion in 2020.

Dorsey’s leadership came under fire in early 2020 when activist hedge fund Elliott Management launched a campaign to remove him as CEO. The challenge was solved when Twitter signed a deal with Elliott Management and Silver Lake and gave each investment firm a seat on the board.

Since then, Twitter has pushed its product development, specifically introducing ephemeral fleets in 2020 and testing a virtual audio room feature called Spaces.

More importantly, last month the company announced ambitious goals to double its revenue to at least $ 7.5 billion and reach 315 million monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) by the end of 2023.

Ned Segal: CFO

Twitter’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal

John Chiala | CNBC

Unlike many CFOs, Segal is an active leader of the company and one of its most outspoken executives. Segal is a frequent participant in all-hands meetings and is one of the company’s top communicators externally, both on his Twitter account and at revenue and other corporate events.

Prior to Twitter, Segal was senior vice president of finance for Intuit’s small group of companies and CFO at RPX, a patent risk management services company. This experience with finance, technology, and the combination of the two makes him an ideal tech CFO.

Segal may have done best in 2020 and played a pivotal role in brokering the deal with Elliott Management, said a former employee.

Vijaya Gadde: Head of Law, Politics and Trust

Vijaya Gadde

Source: Twitter

As the highest ranking woman on Twitter, Gadde is responsible for some of the company’s toughest jobs, including legal matters and anything related to public order, trust and safety on the platform. That said, if the company has problems with harassment, misinformation, or Washington, Gadde’s staff will take care of it.

Gadde is said to be loathe public speaking, but has gained more weight in the past year. In particular, Gadde has increased the use of her Twitter account to publicize and explain the company’s public policy decisions.

She played a pivotal role in deciding what to do with former President Donald Trump’s report after the January 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol. The company eventually decided to permanently ban Trump.

Former employees say Gadde doesn’t have a final word on what the company decides to do about its policies. Dorsey retains that power. But 99% of the time, Dorsey follows Gadde’s recommendations, former employees said.

Parag Agrawal: Chief Technology Officer

Agrawal is one of Twitter’s top tech managers. According to his bio, he is responsible for the strategy that includes artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Agrawal leads the Bluesky project, an independent initiative to create an open standard for social media. This means creating technologies and protocols that allow content posted on a social media service to work across multiple social networks, much like the way email can be read from any email service.

Bluesky is a priority and visionary project for Dorsey, former employees said. So he entrusted Agrawal with his leadership.

Mike Montano: Technical Director

In recent years, Twitter has revised its technical infrastructure to be able to create new products faster. Montano, the company’s technical director, was instrumental in this overhaul. The company has recognized the modernization of its technical infrastructure as a catalyst for the creation of new functions such as fleets and rooms.

Montano is Agrawal’s right-hand man, and now that the overhaul is complete, Montano is focused on hiring more seasoned executives to run Twitter’s fast-growing engineering organization so it can build even faster, a representative told CNBC.

Kayvon Beykpour: Product Guide

Kayvon Beykpour, Co-Founder and CEO of Periscope, speaks on stage during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015.

Noam Galai | Getty Images | TechCrunch

As Product Manager, Beykpour is responsible for the strategy and development of Twitter’s functions and products. He came to Twitter through the acquisition of Periscope, an app that allows users to broadcast live streams from their smartphones.

Under the leadership of Beykpour, Twitter produced some of the most revolutionary product changes in company history.

The company launched fleets last year. These are full-screen images and videos that disappear from users’ pages after 24 hours, similar to stories on Snapchat and Facebook’s Instagram. The company has also started testing Spaces publicly. These are virtual audio rooms where users can gather for live conversations, similar to the popular Clubhouse app. Looking ahead, Beykpour announced that Twitter will test subscription features that allow developers to post exclusive content for their paying followers.

Bruce Falck: Sales Product Leader

While Beykpour leads software development for Twitter’s user products, Falck is its counterpart to products used by marketers. His team is tasked with creating the tools that the company’s customers will use to display ads on Twitter and target them to the users of the service.

The Falck team recently redesigned Twitter’s mobile application advertising. MAP is used by marketers to serve direct response ads on Twitter. This is a pool of advertising dollars that the company barely used. The Falck team’s performance will be critical in helping Twitter achieve its goal of doubling its annual revenue by the end of 2023.

Matt Derella: Global VP, Sales and Content Partnerships

While Falck makes the ad products, Derella is the one engaging the customers who use them. As Twitter’s clients lead, Derella leads the company’s client-facing organization, including the sales group and partnership teams. Derella’s responsibilities include developing Twitter’s sales strategy and increasing sales.

Dantley Davis: Head of Design and Research

Davis leads the team that decides what the company’s products look like and is responsible for the teams that conduct product research to determine what kind of products the company should build next and how consumers use the company’s products, said a employee. Prior to Twitter, Davis headed product design for Facebook’s Stories, News Feed and Video features, according to his biography. He previously worked at Netflix.

Leslie Berland: Chief Marketing Officer and Head of People

Leslie Berland, CMO of Twitter, attends the # HereWeAre Brunch and Talk from Twitter at Cannes Lions on June 20, 2018 in Cannes, France.

Francois Durand | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The longest-serving person on the executive team after Dorsey is Berland, who leads the company’s marketing and human resources organizations, which include communications, recruiting, and human resources.

Berland often makes the rounds as the company’s spokeswoman and takes part in various conferences. She is also loved by Dorsey, former employees said.

Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko: Head of Security

The latest addition to the Twitter leadership team is Zatko, who works with “Mudge”. He was hired in November to redesign and improve the company’s cybersecurity. Mudge is a well-respected hacker in the cybersecurity world, having previously worked at Stripe and on specific projects at Google.

His hiring came after Twitter experienced an unprecedented hack in July when many of its most-visited accounts, including those of then-candidate Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, were taken over by hackers who posted a scam asking for Bitcoin.

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