We won't be getting that Edit button after all
Change of plans: Elon Musk isn’t joining Twitter’s board of directors despite all the buzz and hoopla.
About a week after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is joining the board, Agrawal shared that Musk has decided not to serve in the upper echelon of the San Francisco-based social media giant.
“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance. Elon’s appointment was to become official effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board,” said Agrawal in a brief note sent to company employees, which he also shared via his Twitter account.
“I believe this is for the best.”
Recently, Musk purchased 9.2% of Twitter’s shares. Musk is far ahead atop the list of the highest paid CEOs and executives in 2020 with $6,658,803,818 total compensation that year, according to a Bloomberg report.
“We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” Agrawal added.
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The announcement came just a couple of days after Musk tweeted: “Is Twitter dying?”
On April 9, Musk shared a tweet from World of Statistics showing the top 10 most followed Twitter accounts. The list included the accounts of Barrack Obama (@BarackObama with 131.4 million followers), Justin Bieber (@justinbieber with 114.3 million followers) and Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13 with 90.3 million followers), among others.
“Most of these ‘top’ accounts tweet rarely and post very little content,” Musk said. “For example, @taylorswift13 hasn’t posted anything in 3 months. And @justinbieber only posted once this entire year.”
On March 25, Musk started a poll via a tweet, saying: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Musk previously said that he is “looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
Numerous other companies have also seen movements in their leadership group this year.
Etsy Inc. announced that Kim Seymour has joined the e-commerce giant as CHRO. International real estate investment giant JLL named Laura Adams its new chief human resources officer (CHRO).
Ralph Lauren announced that Howard Smith, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at the company, resigned. Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks Corp., announced he will be retiring next month after 13 years with the company. Bolt founder and CEO Ryan Breslow announced that he’s stepping down after seven years at the helm of his San Francisco-based tech firm.
