Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Man Group has appointed its first female CEO, a European bureaucrat is turning into an internet meme, and Elon Musk says he's picked a female CEO for Twitter—but won't say who. Have a great weekend.
- Chief Twit. Twitter CEO Elon Musk dropped a bombshell yesterday: "Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!"
“She” was the biggest clue in the otherwise terse message that didn't identify his successor. Multiple media outlets have filled in the blank: NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino, chair of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, is reportedly in talks to take the job.
A tech CEO told Fortune that Yaccarino is “amazing.” Tech journalist Kara Swisher, who was early to suggest Yaccarino as a contender, described the NBCUniversal veteran as an “ad powerhouse” who is “well liked.” The Wall Street Journal reports Yaccarino’s tough negotiating tactics have earned her the nickname “the velvet hammer.”
Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal for more than a decade. She’s pushed for better ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising and was instrumental in the launch of NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service, the Journal reports.
Her advertising expertise—she oversees approximately $13 billion in annual ad spend—is certainly compatible with the demands of the Twitter CEO job. Advertisers have fled Twitter since Elon Musk bought it, fearing his looser moderation policies will associate their brands with offensive content.
Twitter’s new CEO will also take over a significantly reduced workforce—the result of massive layoffs—and a platform that seems increasingly prone to technological glitches.
All told, the Twitter CEO role represents “the mother of all glass cliff cleanup jobs,” argues New York Times opinion columnist Lydia Polgreen. “A man has made one hell of a mess and he hires a woman to clean it up.”
Then again, if we take Musk at his word—he can be such a goof—his working alongside a powerful woman is not totally out of character. After all, Gwynne Shotwell runs the day-to-day operations at SpaceX, where she’s president and COO, and Robyn Denholm has served as Tesla chair since 2018.
As of early Friday, Musk hadn’t yet confirmed the name of his female successor. For now, we’ll be glued to his Twitter feed for more hints—perhaps as he intended.
Claire Zillman
@clairezillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
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