Twitter has announced the appointment of former Google executive Omid Kordestani to its board of directors, serving as executive chairman.
Twitter’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, who returned to the permanent role of CEO last week, said: “A great chairperson is the first step to continuing to make our board one of the best in the world, and purpose-built to serve Twitter.
“Omid is a proven and experienced leader, who will directly help and coach me and our leadership, and help us recruit the best folks to Twitter.”
A great chairperson is the first step towards continuing to make our Board one of the best in the world, and purpose-built to serve Twitter.
— Jack (@jack) October 14, 2015
Omid is a proven & experienced leader, who will directly help & coach me and our leadership, and help us recruit the best folks to Twitter.
— Jack (@jack) October 14, 2015
Kordestani was chief business officer of Google from August 2014 to August of this year, when the company reorganised under its new umbrella corporation, Alphabet, and the executive was sidelined. He has remained on as “senior advisor.” How Kordestani’s role will differ from Dorsey’s own remains to be seen
Kordestani tweeted that: “It’s rare you get to be at a company with an amazing business that’s also transforming the world. I’ve had [the] good fortune to be at three: Netscape, Google and now Twitter.”
I’ve had good fortune to be at three: Netscape, @google, and now @twitter.
— Omid Kordestani (@omidkordestani) October 14, 2015
Kordestani has also worked as a vice president at Netscape and Hewlett Packard, previously sat on Spotify’s board of directors and was a non-executive at Vodafone until 2014.
He was widely praised for his time at Netscape after revenue increased from $88 million to around $200 million in 18 months. However, he had less success at GO Corporation, which folded in 1994.
I'm thrilled that we've named @omidkordestani -- savvy business leader and great friend -- as Exec Chair of @twitter
— Peter Currie (@plscurrie) October 14, 2015
Welcome, @omidkordestani! Couldn’t be happier to have you serve as exec chair. the job will fit like a glove. https://t.co/8xW6TV7UJK
— David Rosenblatt (@rosenblattdavid) October 14, 2015
Despite being a Silicon Valley heavyweight, it appears that Twitter’s new executive chairman has only ever sent 11 tweets – 27% of which have been sent in the last 15 minutes. He follows 27 people and is followed by 2,247 at the time of writing.
On Tuesday, Twitter announced it would cut its global staff by 8% (or around 336 employees). Twitter told the SEC that it expects earnings “for the third quarter of 2015 to be at or above the high end of the previously forecasted ranges” after the layoffs.
In one of the first moves since he was permanently reappointed CEO to the company he co-founded in 2006, Dorsey wrote in a letter to staff: “We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organisation will be streamlined in parallel.”
• Twitter slashes global workforce as it struggles for growth
