Elon Musk Appoints NBCU Ad Chief Linda Yaccarino as New Twitter CEO

(Photo: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images for AWXII) YORK, NY - OCTOBER 01: NBCUniversal Chairman of Advertising Sales and Creative Partnerships Linda Yaccarino speaks onstage at the Beyond Brand: Content's New Frontier panel during Advertising Week 2015 AWXII at the Times Center Stage on September 30, 2015, in New York City.

Linda Yaccarino, the head of worldwide advertising for NBCUniversal, has left the company to become Twitter's new CEO.

On Friday, May 12, Twitter owner Elon Musk made the appointment official with a tweet. "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!" Musk posted.

Musk added Yaccarino would handle company operations while he creates products and develop new technologies.

Musk announced his resignation from the post as CEO of the social networking website through Twitter on Thursday, May 11. However, he did not specify who would replace him. According to a tweet from Musk, the new hire will begin in around six weeks.

Saving Twitter's Business Ops

Since Yaccarino's arrival at NBCUniversal in 2011, the company's international advertising division has flourished under her leadership.

The advertising boss was scheduled to attend NBCUniversal's Upfront event in Radio City in New York next week. This is the annual sales presentation that NBCUniversal and other media companies present to the advertising industry every year in May.

After losing billions of dollars in advertising revenue since Musk took over Twitter last year, the veteran advertising executive Yaccarino brings extensive connections to top chief marketing officers and other advertising executives to the company.

In October 2022, Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Not long after that, he removed the executive team and let go of thousands of workers.

Several companies stopped advertising on Twitter after various advocacy organizations found evidence of a rise in hate speech and other forms of harassment on the site. Musk then introduced Twitter Blue, a paid premium service that includes additional options, including the ability to write lengthier tweets in an effort to offset declining ad income.

At a marketing convention in Florida in the middle of April, Yaccarino and Musk did a keynote interview together. The future of Twitter and its place in the cultural dialogue were looked at, as was the role of marketers in that future.

Musk apparently sought to convince conference attendees that Twitter was an appropriate venue for their companies.

Management Shakeup at NBCUniversal

Weeks after Jeff Shell was fired as CEO of NBCUniversal for having an improper connection with an employee, Yaccarino also decided to leave the organization. Instead of reporting to Shell, according to CNBC, NBCUniversal's senior brass will now answer to Mike Cavanagh, president of parent firm Comcast.

After announcing Yaccarino's sudden departure on Friday, NBCUniversal named Mark Marshall, the company's current head of advertising sales and client alliances, to serve as temporary chairman of the advertising and partnerships business.

Mark Lazarus, the head of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, will be Marshall's immediate superior. Reports from CNBC's David Faber and Julia Boorstin on Friday indicated that Lazarus and Marshall will be attending Monday's NBCUniversal Upfront presentation.