X’s Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO following a two-year tenure marred by Elon Musk-fueled controversy.
Linda Yaccarino is done cleaning up after Elon Musk.
When she joined the platform formerly known as Twitter in June 2023, investors and ad industry professionals heralded her as a potential savior. The Madison Avenue veteran was tasked with turning around the platform’s ad business, which foundered when Elon Musk purchased the company then known as Twitter in 2022.
But within her first couple of months in the top job, her most important responsibility crystallized: She would be a highly visible clean-up crew for Musk.
„It became pretty clear straight away“ her main role would be to „try to keep morale going internally“, Bruce Daisley, a former Twitter VP who left before Yaccarino joined the company, told Business Insider.
Now, she’s exiting what observers describe as a thankless job that involved mending relationships, easing anxieties, and answering to one of the most notoriously challenging leaders in tech.
„She always made it clear she would walk away when the time was right“, a friend of Yaccarino’s told BI. „She made enough money that she doesn’t need to work.“A Madison Avenue mainstay goes to Silicon Valley
Yaccarino joined Twitter from NBCUniversal, where she ran the ad business for more than a decade. She was responsible for bringing the entertainment giant into the digital age and gained experience with streaming video. Her NBCUniversal team generated more than $100 billion in ad sales during her tenure, according to her old company profile page.
Yaccarino seemed to embrace Musk’s ideas about lax content moderation, which could be seen as risky for advertisers. But advertising’s top brass celebrated her Twitter appointment due to her deep relationships on Madison Avenue.
„Yaccarino earned a reputation for strong relationships, indispensable knowledge, and tough negotiation skills“, Jay Pattisall, principal analyst at the research firm Forrester, told BI of her tenure at NBCUniversal and before that, Turner Broadcasting. „There was great anticipation that Yaccarino could innovate Twitter/X in that same way.“
She would need that experience to fix the chaos Musk had made.
The platform she inherited had been decimated after Musk’s takeover. Advertisers had backed away as Musk brought back banned Twitter accounts and loosened content regulation. In December 2022, Musk’s second full month at the helm, ad revenue fell 40% compared with December 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported.
„Top on the priority list for advertisers is ensuring brand safety in light of Musk’s more relaxed approach to content moderation“, Aaron Goldman, CMO of the advertising software company Mediaocean, said when she got the job, adding that it was „welcome news“ for advertisers.
