Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey announced four senior executives' departure from the company on Sunday. The tweeting site's former product head Kevin Weil is reportedly headed to Facebook-owned Instagram, and according to Re/code's unnamed sources, will take over as the new product lead. The report also mentioned that the picture- and video-sharing platform had courted Mr. Weil since a few months, before his eventual exit from Twitter last weekend.
Facebook likely poached Mr. Weil to join Instagram, since Peter Deng—its product head for the past two-plus years—was recently shifted to Oculus, the virtual reality (VR) division. However, there has been no official confirmation from Instagram about Mr. Weil's appointment.
Twitter engineering head Alex Roetter, VP human resources Brian Schipper, and VP global media Katie Jacobs Stanton have also departed the micro-blogging platform. In a tweet on Sunday, Mr. Dorsey said the exodus of top management was voluntary rather than forced. COO Adam Bain is expected to take on additional responsibilities, with media and HR teams under his control on an interim basis, while CTO Adam Messinger will now lead both the engineering and product departments.
After the departures, Twitter named former American Express VP marketing Leslie Berland as its chief marketing officer. On the other hand, former Apple communications head Natalie Kerris is being eyed for a similar role at the micro-blogging company.
In her 14-year tenure, Ms. Kerris headed the public relations and communications during some of the most lucrative launches, ranging from the new iPads and iPhones to the more recent Apple Pay service. She worked in close circles of the former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and her industry expertise is something that can facilitate Twitter's attempt to turn around its performance.
It is likely Ms. Kerris and Ms. Berland will collaborate as Mr. Dorsey's new lieutenants to help bring forth new innovations in the company's offerings, and improve the platform's public image to enhance the stagnant user base growth. Since last year, the micro-blogging website has faced the brunt of investor concerns over top management departures, slow ad revenue, growth, and lethargic increase in monthly active users (MAU)—from 320 million reported in July 2015.
Mr. Dorsey took over as interim CEO during the same period to turn around the company's ailing fortunes. However, numerous policies have since been experimented, but did not help budge the MAUs; even Instagram—its competitor—has overtaken with its reported 400 million MAUs.
Twitter stock plunged almost 35% since its IPO price of $26 in November 2013, and has hit its lowest mark this week, at around $16 per share. Bidness Etc will soon discuss whether the new CMO and Ms. Kerris' potential hiring provide the operational stability the company seeks to foster future growth.
Source: Twitter, Facebook, and Apple Walk into a Bar to Trade Top Officials
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