Elon Musk confirms resignation as Twitter CEO, but who will replace him?

Alongside the announcement that Musk would step aside from his role as CEO, the billionaire also hinted as to who his successor may be.

Incumbent Twitter CEO Elon Musk has finally made good on his December promise of stepping down from the role once he had found “someone foolish enough to take the job”.

The next head of the social media giant looks set to take on the position in a much less public-facing manner than Musk managed, with the precocious tech mogul’s opinionated rants on the platform often placing Twitter in the headlines unwantedly.

The TESLA and SpaceX CEO also announced that he would be transitioning into a newly formed role which would see him oversee software development and servers at Twitter.

Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!

My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023

Releasing the news of the shock stepping down, Musk tweeted “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!”

The second half of this statement drew perhaps an even bigger reaction online than the news of Musk’s long-awaited self-removal, as the South-African businessman all but confirmed that the next CEO of Twitter would be female.

As is regularly the case with Musk’s traction-gaining tweets, this one impacted the share prices of his other companies, with Tesla stock rising to its highest price in the past month in the fifteen minutes following the announcement.

This optimism from investors stems from the prevailing sentiment in the business world that taking on the burden of running a global social media platform like Twitter, on top of his other pre-established endeavours, was an unnecessary distraction for Musk.

During his time as CEO, Musk has introduced a deluge of controversial reforms, including the allowing of former US President Donald Trump back onto the platform (although he is yet to tweet), and the introduction of paid verification on Twitter which has reeked havoc for source credibility.

Musk’s tweet also sent the platform into a frenzy, as users frantically tried to establish who the mystery woman could potentially be.

The rumours which appear to be based in the most truth though are those linking former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg with the role.

Having grown Facebook’s advertising revenue by 37% during her time at the rival platform, Sandberg resigned from her former position in June of 2021 to focus on charity work. However, the allure of leading Musk’s Twitter could potentially entice her back to Silicon Valley.

Another name which has been heavily linked with Musk’s role is that of Marissa Mayer, who served in the same position at Yahoo for five years between 2012 and 2017.

With her most recent venture being heading up artificial intelligence and consumer media firm Sunshine, her profile certainly fits Musk’s criteria.

Whoever ultimately emerges as the successful candidate, one of the first controversies with which they will have to contend with is this week’s news that former Fox host Tucker Carlson is bringing his political chat show to the platform.

Previously describing himself as a “free speech absolutist”, Musk has distanced himself from speculation that a business deal had been struck between Carlson and Twitter, but offered his appreciation of the news by also inviting the former CNN host Don Lemon to join Carlson in migrating to the platform.

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