The candidates in the running to replace the world’s richest man should he decide to quit his role in charge of the social media platform
(Picture: ES)Elon Musk on Sunday held a poll asking if he should step down as Twitter CEO. Some 17.5 million votes later, 57.5 per cent of respondents voted that he should.
The world’s richest man has since tweeted: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”
Some have suggested Musk is preparing for Twitter to go bankrupt and that all his tweets are akin to grandstanding. But if he follows through on his promise, who could, would or should take over the role of Twitter CEO? Here are some of today’s leading candidates:
Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook and Meta COO (2008-2022)
After more than a decade at Facebook and Meta, Sandberg stepped down from her role as Meta COO in August 2022. She is one of the biggest names in tech and therefore seems perfectly equipped to be Twitter CEO.
She is seen as a “Girlboss” icon, and is author of one of the lead texts of this feminism offshoot, Lean In. By the time she left Meta, she had reportedly sold more than $1.7 billion worth of Facebook shares. White billionaire to white billionaire — there’s continuity if nothing else.
Since leaving Meta, most of her online activity relates to leaning.org, a non-profit organisation intended to promote women in the workplace.
David Sacks
Former Musk colleague and bookies’ favourite
The bookies’ favourite to take over at Twitter is David Sacks, according to Newsweek. He was PayPal’s COO and one of its earliest employees. Musk was CEO of the company for less than a year, before it was known as PayPal. However, he was also founder of a company called X.com, which merged with another company called Coinfinity to eventually form the PayPal we know today.
These days, Sacks seems to be fairly closely aligned with Musk. You can find him tweeting away supportively and re-tweeting his old colleague online.
He is a venture capitalist and host of the All-In podcast, in which several rich, middle-aged men discuss such topics as start-up culture, cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Delightful.
Kayvon Beykpour
Twitter Head of Consumer Product (2018-2022)
Beykpour was Head of Consumer Product for Twitter for seven years, but was fired in the earlier stages of the Musk acquisition. Musk made a lot of noise about the need to save money in the company, so this sacking may have been part of cost-cutting stipulations. Rather than, you know, Musk personally hating Beykpour for some reason.
Bringing back a previous senior member of the platform could be seen as a stabilising influence. However, he has publicly spoken out against moves made by Musk since he left Twitter in May 2022. And, after being fired during his paternity leave, he may not be overflowing with goodwill towards the company.
Parag Agrawal
Twitter CEO (2019-2022)
Agrawal was Twitter CEO before the platform was bought by Musk. He was fired towards the end of October as Musk took control.
He had been at Twitter since 2011, starting as a software engineer, before his stint as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He was then CEO from 2019 to 2022.
It seems almost impossible that Musk would be willing to reappoint Agrawa and effectively replace himself with his predecessor. However, while Musk owns the company, the money he used to buy it was partially supplied through bank loans and investors. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the largest of these investors, having pumped in $1.9 billion in equity. These partners, and Tesla investors, could pressure Musk into a move like this.
Jared Kushner
Rich white guy and nepotism specialist (1981-)
Musk was photographed hanging out with Kushner during the Fifa World Cup final on Sunday, leading to speculation that he might become the new Twitter CEO.
Why would he be good at the job? No idea, but that has never stopped Kushner before.
He was former US president Donald Trump’s Senior White House Adviser, seemingly because he is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. While he has worked in publishing, this is tied to buying publishing entities such as The New York Observer, rather than having any experience in or knowledge of the field.
Snoop Dogg
Original gangsta and low-key social media magnate (1993-)
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, better known as Snoop Dogg, held his own poll on Twitter, asking if he should take over as CEO. More than 3,390,000 votes were cast, with 81 per cent of respondents in favour of the American rapper taking on the role.
This was a joke, but he may have more in common with some of the more favoured candidates than you might think. For instance, he’s a serial investor. In 2014, he bought a stake in social network Reddit, alongside Peter Thiel — co-founder of Paypal — the sale of which to eBay earned Musk a reported $180 million.
Snoop Dogg and Musk have also both smoked weed while appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast.
