Twitter has had quite a ride in the quest for a new CEO. It started in June after the preceding CEO, Dick Costolo stepped down and the company board hit the ground running to announce a new CEO. The board had formed a committee to identify the next CEO and they were considering both internal and external candidates to fill the CEO role permanently. In the meantime however, the board appointed Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and chairman to be the interim CEO. There was a problem however.
Jack Dorsey was also the CEO of Square Inc, another company he founded which is a company that deals with financial services. The committee had explicitly said that “they will only consider candidates for recommendation to the full Board who are in a position to make a full-time commitment to Twitter“. Well today through a tweet, Peter Currie, Twitter’s Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Search Committee announced that the board had appointed Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO of Twitter.
The Board completed a comprehensive process to find the best leader for @twitter, and we were unanimous: @jack. http://t.co/1RWPKacF5t
— Peter Currie (@plscurrie) October 5, 2015
In a press release he shared, it revealed that Twitter’s Board of Directors had appointed Jack Dorsey as the CEO on September 30th. In an interesting twist to the former stance of the “candidate only being committed to Twitter”, Dorsey will also continue to serve as the CEO of Square Inc too. However, Jack will no longer act as Chairman of the Board. Jack went ahead on Twitter and proclaimed his plans
I've been CEO of both companies for over 3 months now. I have the smartest, strongest, and most determined leaders in the world on my teams.
— jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
We're working hard at Twitter to focus our roadmap on a few things we can make really great. And we're strengthening our team along the way.
— jack (@jack) October 5, 2015
Jack’s appointment comes at a time when he will be under immense scrutiny as the CEO of two companies he founded and guiding Twitter through a trying time as it seeks to gain more users and grow its ad revenue. We’ll have to sit back and watch what changes Dorsey will make as he takes the reins on Twitter.
