Elon Musk says he has found a new CEO for Twitter and “she” will start in a matter of weeks. Most likely, it’s Linda Yaccarino, the current head of publicity and partnerships for NBCUniversal.
However, I do know that Yaccarino has been looking for the job and telling his friends that he wants it. The advertising world is certainly gossiping that it’s her. She recently hosted Musk at his “Possible” publicity conference in Miami. for an effusive interview and she’s been tweeting up a storm, including about how excited she is for NBC to partner with Twitter for the upcoming Olympics.
In its tweet todayMusk said that once his mysterious new CEO starts in about six weeks, he will “transition into CEO and CTO, overseeing product, software and system operators.”
That means its CEO will focus almost exclusively on the business, for which Yaccarino is certainly qualified. He already runs a multi-million dollar ad business and is well respected among the CMO cohort who need to be convinced to spend again on the platform. Importantly, they told me that she and Musk are on the same page politically as well.
“She’s tough as fuck and she’s always wanted this job,” says a former colleague. “It is perfect.”
If I had to guess, the reason Musk didn’t announce the name is because of the unfortunate timing of Yaccarino’s end. NBCU is scheduled to give its annual Upfront to advertisers on Monday, for which Yaccarino is apparently rehearsing today. Strange!
This story was published in today’s edition of my Command Line newsletter, which you can subscribe to below:
Amrita Khalid contributed to this reporting.
