A woman to lead Twitter in six weeks as Elon Musk hints at CEO hiring

Musk said in November he expected to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company

Elon Musk is in talks to hire Linda Yaccarino, the chair of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, as CEO of Twitter, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The talks are at an advanced stage, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations are confidential. Yaccarino has been in discussions with Musk for weeks, they said. Last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk onstage at an advertising event in Miami.

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Musk had said earlier Thursday that he had selected a CEO for Twitter but did not identify the executive. In a tweet, he said “she will be starting in ~6 weeks!” He added that he would remain involved as executive chair and “CTO,” which typically denotes chief technology officer, and that he would still oversee Twitter’s product and software.

Musk and Yaccarino did not respond to requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Yaccarino was in talks with Musk.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last year, will retain a firm grip on the company even if he names a CEO. As Twitter’s owner, he has put his stamp on it by eliminating more than 75% of its 7,500 employees, installing his own leaders and changing the service’s features and strategy. He also took Twitter private, which means he does not have to disclose corporate information to the public.

Any new CEO is set to inherit a litany of challenges at Twitter. The company faces a sagging advertising business, which has been its main source of revenue, as well as debt payments of about $1.5 billion a year from the sale to Musk.

In Yaccarino, Twitter would get an executive with deep ties to the advertising industry and with extensive experience in the media sector. Yaccarino, whose star has risen over the course of a long career at NBCUniversal, has personal relationships with most of the CEOs of the advertising holding companies, a key constituency for Twitter.

She has moved in the top echelons of the advertising world for years, overseeing a sprawling team that has brokered major marketing partnerships, helped develop NBCUniversal’s streaming options, criticized outdated industry practices and generated more than $100 billion in advertising sales.

The conversations about Twitter’s CEO come at a delicate time for Yaccarino, who is slated to address NBCUniversal’s biggest clients next week in the upfronts, an annual pitch to woo advertisers.