Patrick Pichette has been appointed chair of the Twitter board of directors.
Twitter Inc. on Tuesday named Patrick Pichette, a former chief financial officer of Google, as chairman of the board of directors of the social network, marking the first time in the history of Twitter that a stranger will chair the group.
Pichette, who has been the main independent director of Twitter since the end of 2018, will replace Omid Kordestani at the helm of directors as president. Kordestani oversaw the board of directors and was more involved in the business on a daily basis as executive chairman for almost five years.
Kordestani will remain a director, serving on the 11-member board of directors alongside three new directors.
The move comes three months after Elliott Management, the $ 40 billion hedge fund, sought to oust CEO Jack Dorsey, pushed for better corporate governance, and wanted to see a higher share price. . The two sides reached an agreement in early March that has allowed Dorsey to stay for the time being, and has given board seats to Elliott, among others.
Investors are increasingly pushing foreigners to chair boards of directors.
Pichette should bring more control to management and a greater focus on financial matters for the business. Twitter’s share price closed at $ 32.26 on Tuesday, down 12.5% over the past 52 weeks.
Jesse Cohn, who led Elliott’s campaign, Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake and artificial intelligence expert Fei-Fei Lei has joined the board as part of the agreement.
In recent times, social media platforms have come under scrutiny for how they control the spread of false information, and Twitter and Dorsey have hit the headlines when they confronted President Donald Trump, the most famous Twitter user.
Trump, who accuses social media companies of bias against the conservatives, without evidence, has stepped up attacks on Twitter after putting fact-checking labels on Trump’s tweets.
Trump signed an executive order threatening social media companies in Silicon Valley with new freedom of expression regulations.
