Who will be the next CEO of Twitter? Here is the list of the most likely candidates

A month ago Elon Musk pledged to resign as CEO of Twitter, after users of the social network had expressed their resignation by participating in a survey that had a plebiscitary outcome.

The billionaire had then specified that he would resign only after he had identified a worthy successor. A month later, Musk remains firmly in his place and a possible manager in charge of picking up his baton is not even in sight.

So who will be the next Twitter CEO ? The Verge magazine has tried to give an answer, creating a shortlist with the most likely candidates.

In first place we find Sheryl Sandberg , ex N.2 of Facebook. “It’s the obvious choice, especially if Musk really intends to continue following the technological side of Twitter by leaving the business to a new CEO,” writes Alex Heath on The Verge. “Sandberg has the ability to attract and keep new advertisers (and Twitter desperately needs it), on the other hand it is not certain that she gets along with Elon Musk, who is not even a huge fan of Facebook”.

The list continues with Emmett Shear , founder and CEO of Twitch. “He was not on my list of eligible candidates, but by dint of asking around for his name, he started to be mentioned frequently,” explains Heath. Pros: He’s an entertainment veteran, and we know Elon Musk wants to make video a much bigger asset for Twitter. On the other hand, Twitch has not been able to expand beyond the niche of very young users and video game enthusiasts, while Musk wants to transform Twitter into a transversal product capable of attracting over 1 billion users.

Another relevant name is that of Vanessa Pappas, that is the COO of TikTok with a past in YouTube, for which she has long taken care of the entire monetization part dedicated to content creators. “There are rumors that she wants to step down from her role on ByteDance, but she’s probably not the best profile to lead Twitter.”

Another interesting name potentially in line with Twitter’s needs is that of Jim Lanzone , former CEO of Tinder and current No. 1 of Yahoo. “Lanzone’s background is more in the media and advertising industry, aside from his brief stint as CEO of Tinder,” explains The Verge. «He is currently at the helm of Yahoo, but he could change team if he gets a suitable offer. He has the advertising business connections, as well as the operational experience necessary to lead a company the size of Twitter ».

The Verge list continues and closes with Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of Instagram. He left after a run-in with Mark Zuckerberg, but he sure knows his stuff about him building and running a successful social network. On the other hand, he doesn’t have much experience (or contacts) with the advertising business. He remains an excellent candidate, but it is by no means certain that he wants to take the lead of a large social platform again. After all, he has already had an extremely generous severance pay from Instagram and has already proven that he is not willing to work under the guidance of another billionaire.

• Who should be the next CEO of Twitter? (theverge.com)