‘Buddy’: Who’s Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk’s decide for Twitter CEO?

Linda Yaccarino has been friendlier with Elon Musk than most advert executives — and as Twitter’s new CEO it’s her job to persuade colleagues throughout the business to do enterprise with him once more.

The previous NBCUniversal advertising and marketing guru, confirmed as Twitter’s next boss on Friday, has emerged as a key ally for Musk of late — at the same time as he traded barbs with main advertisers who felt he hadn’t executed sufficient to fight hate speech after his messy $44 billion acquisition of the corporate.

The budding rapport between the 2 was on show on April 18, when Yaccarino referred to the billionaire as her “buddy” whereas interviewing him onstage on the possible marketing conference in Miami Beach last month — and pressed Musk on his efforts to “de-risk” Twitter for advert companions.

The well-connected Yaccarino had beforehand defended Musk at an Advert Age convention final November, urging advertisers to provide him an opportunity earlier than slicing enterprise ties with Twitter.

On the time, she mentioned she was “obsessed” and “fascinated” by Musk’s Twitter takeover.

Yaccarino’s diplomatic expertise might be put to the take a look at at Twitter, the place she might be requested to spearhead a chaotic, advanced overhaul of the embattled firm’s enterprise.

The hassle that may undoubtedly embrace a serious marketing campaign to restore Twitter’s relationships with wary advertisers who fled the platform following Musk’s $44 billion takeover.

“She has had extraordinary relationships with the company group and types straight.

It will bode properly with what she is going to deliver to Twitter,” MediaLink chairman and CEO Michael Kassan, who has identified and labored along with her for practically twenty years, informed The Submit.

Certainly, on the day of his April 18 interview with Yaccarino in Miami, Musk attended a prolonged non-public dinner with a gaggle of elite promoting and advertising and marketing executives on the Faena Lodge’s non-public wine cellar La Cava.

In the course of the gathering, Musk pushed again on claims that hate speech had elevated on Twitter below his watch as “bogus,” The Post reported at the time.

The dinner often turned heated, with one attendee saying some executives have been left “shocked” and “appalled” by Musk’s “disregard” for hate speech and felt their issues have been dismissed.

Nevertheless, the sources mentioned the assembly was in the end a productive step.

Yaccarino’s appointment as Twitter’s subsequent CEO got here hours after she resigned as NBCU’s promoting chief. A day earlier, Musk tweeted that he had already employed Twitter’s subsequent CEO, who can be taking up the function in about “six weeks.”

By hiring Yaccarino, Musk-owned Twitter is gaining a “very decisive, very robust chief who is targeted,” based on Kassin.

Yaccarino is a “nice workforce chief” who’s well-liked in media circles,” he added.

Musk mentioned Yaccarino will “focus totally on enterprise operations, whereas I deal with product design & new expertise.”

He added that Yaccarino will assist “rework this platform into X, the all the pieces app.”

Yaccarino has intensive expertise on the planet of digital promoting, having performed a key function within the launch of NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming service, Peacock.

Her firm bio notes that her workforce “has generated greater than $100 billion in advert gross sales” since she joined the corporate in 2011.

“I assume she’s going to be taught to dwell by the tweet,” Kassin added. “She’s demonstrated publicly that she’s had a relationship with [Musk]. She’s demonstrated an alliance.”

Yaccarino’s exit marked one other setback for NBCUniversal, which was compelled to abruptly hearth its former longtime CEO, Jeff Shell, after he confronted a sexual harassment criticism from former CNBC worldwide anchor Hadley Gamble.

Yaccarino’s exit was not associated to latest C-suite shakeup at NBCUniversal following Shell’s dismissal, the supply near the state of affairs informed The Submit.

Moreover, Yaccarino left the corporate as rumors swirl that the media large may look to divest Peacock as a part of a attainable mixture with one other streamer, equivalent to WarnerBros.

Discovery’s mixed Discovery-HBO Max streaming service or Paramount+.

Even when such a tie-up have been to happen, the supply near the state of affairs informed The Submit that Yaccarino and her workforce weren’t at risk of being reduce unfastened at NBCUniversal within the potential upheaval.

Yaccarino’s leap to Twitter was an “opportunistic transfer,” the supply mentioned.

“It’s a as soon as in a lifetime alternative that may see her out of the advert gross sales realm — despite the fact that she’s greater than that,” the supply added.

A graduate of Penn State College, Yaccarino held varied ad-focused roles at NBCUniversal during the last decade.

Previous to becoming a member of the media large, she labored as an government at Turner, whose belongings are actually owned by WarnerBros. Discovery.

Except for her work in media, Yaccarino is employed by the World Financial Discussion board, serving because the worldwide group’s chair on the Taskforce on the Way forward for Work.

Yaccarino additionally had a earlier stint as chairman of the nonprofit Advert Council. In 2018, she was appointed to former President Donald Trump’s council on sports activities, health and vitamin.