According to a tweet, Linda Yaccarino became Twitter CEO on Monday.
“It happened—first day in the books!” she wrote. Stay tuned.
Twitter owner Elon Musk announced a new CEO in mid-May. Musk announced Yaccarino’s appointment as CEO days after she resigned as NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships group chairman.
Yaccarino may be starting early. Musk said his new CEO would start in six weeks when he announced her. but only three weeks. Yaccarino abruptly left NBCUniversal after nearly 12 years. Her resignation came days before the company’s upfront presentation, a key advertiser event.
Yaccarino’s first day at Twitter was eventful, assuming CEOs are exempt from generic onboarding tasks. Musk hosted a live audio Space with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist running against President Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary. The chat went better than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ technical-plagued campaign announcement. Kennedy claimed that pharmaceutical drugs like Prozac caused school shootings and that the pharmaceutical industry controlled the Democratic party during this event, which Twitter says peaked at 60,000 listeners.
Musk told Kennedy that Twitter has lost over half its ad revenue since he took over in October. Yaccarino supports Musk’s “free speech” mission on her Twitter account, even if it scares advertisers.
“Tonight’s reflection—we just heard a rare and unscripted conversation, on a range of important topics, with a Presidential candidate—all launched on Twitter,” she tweeted after DeSantis’ Twitter Space. “That’s historic. Do more. Speech is invaluable.”