NBCUniversal's head of advertising Linda Yaccarino is set to become the new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk has confirmed.
The Tesla chief had earlier said he had found a woman to replace him at Twitter but would not identify the executive, sparking speculation.
Musk later confirmed on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino would be taking over the social media platform.
"I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!" Musk said in a tweet.
"@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.
"Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app."
Who is Linda Yaccarino?
Yaccarino joined the American media company NBCUniversal in 2011 and most recently held the title of Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships.
Prior to Musk's announcement, NBCUniversal said on Friday that Yaccarino would step down immediately from her role.
Yaccarino and her 2,000-member global team are credited with generating more than $100 billion in ad sales and launching the ad-supported streaming service Peacock.
At NBCU, Yaccarino has used advertising to advance equity and helped launch initiatives like BOLD — a program for employing veterans — and the #ShesMy campaign to uplift women and girls.
Yaccarino previously worked at Turner Entertainment where she transitioned the network's ad sales operation into the digital future.
She Runs It — an organisation that champions women across the marketing industry — recognised Yaccarino as 2022 Woman of the Year for her advocacy in creating "a better advertising industry".
As Ad Council Chair, Yaccarino partnered with the business community and White House to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which featured Pope Francis and reached 200 million Americans.
She is also chairman of the World Economic Forum's Taskforce on Future of Work.
What is Yaccarino's history with Musk?
Yaccarino interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami last month.
At the event, Yaccarino encouraged the audience to welcome Musk with applause and praised his work ethic.
"Many of you in this room know me, and you know I pride myself on my work ethic, but, buddy, I met my match," she said.
When Yaccarino later asked him about his vision for Twitter, Musk said he was trying to make it "fun" and "interesting".
"The optimisation for Twitter is maximise the unregretted user time," he said.
"It's going well — it's entertaining," Musk said, before adding, "Trainwrecks are arguably entertaining."
Had she met him before the conference? NBCU has had partnerships with Twitter, so it's possible she spoke to him before.
What will happen to Musk?
Musk will become Twitter's executive chair and chief technology officer, overseeing product, software and system operations.
The Tesla chief and SpaceX founder has long said he intended to find a new leader for Twitter.
After buying out the social media company for $44 billion in October, Mr Musk fired Twitter's previous CEO, Parag Agrawal, and then laid off half its staff.
Two months later, in a Twitter poll started by Musk, more than 57 per cent of users voted for him to step down as Twitter CEO.
"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Musk said back then.
Tesla Inc's shares closed 2.1 per cent higher after he announced he had found a new executive on Thursday.
The shares rose a further 1.6 per cent in after-hours trade.
"The boat anchor called Twitter is loosened from Musk's ankle," Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth MKM said.
"Now he can get back to spending more time creating value at Tesla."
