Four Twitter Executives Leave The Company In Sunday Night Exodus

By @TheMarkDalton.

Twitter is going through a major executive shake up as of Sunday night when the head of engineering, media, product and Vine all decided to exit the company. They were not forced out, they were not asked by Twitter to leave, instead they all left on the same day on their own accord. 

CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed the departures on Twitter stating that all four chose to leave the company as well as giving details about what their job roles were at Twitter over the past number of years.

Was really hoping to talk to Twitter employees about this later this week, but want to set the record straight now: pic.twitter.com/PcpRyTzOlW

— Jack (@jack) January 25, 2016

The news came following rumours that a high profile media personality is to be named to the board at some point today. Sources close to Twitter say that the departures are part of a long-planned restructuring. The four executives in question are – Katie Stanton, head of media, Kevin Weil, head of product, Alex Roetter, head of engineering and Jason Toff, head of Vine – they were all close allies of former CEO Dick Costolo and “were not people in whom Jack has the highest faith,” a source told Mashable.

The above executives addressed their departures publicly on Twitter.

The decision to leave Vine was hard. I love the team, am so proud of what we've done and know there are incredible things ahead for them.

— Jason Toff (@jasontoff) January 25, 2016

5½ years, 600,000+ miles, 20+ countries & many friends. Un grand merci, Twitter, for the adventure of a lifetime https://t.co/7xF7qDOToJ

— Katie Jacobs Stanton (@KatieS) January 25, 2016

1/3 This company has accomplished more than I ever could have imagined when I joined. What a testament to the amazing people here.

— Alex Roetter (@aroetter) January 25, 2016

2/3 I've been thinking about this for a while: after 5.5 yrs, I've decided to take a step back to think about what's next for me & my family

— Alex Roetter (@aroetter) January 25, 2016

3/3 @twitter has incredible potential, and I know that many great things are still to come. I can't wait to see what's next! ??

— Alex Roetter (@aroetter) January 25, 2016

It is a major executive restructuring for Twitter which has done little to reassure investors and users that the service is changing for the better over the past number of months.

Jack Dorsey is under tremendous pressure to give Twitter a new identity and a fresh new approach which appeals to a much wider audience while still keeping the hardcore Twitter users relatively happy. Chris Sacca is a Twitter shareholder who has made his feelings known on the company in the past and while he did not reveal who would be joining the Twitter board he appeared to offer a formal endorsement of the changes in a tweet yesterday.

I get asked, so to be clear: I'm not joining the Twitter board. Looking forward to who does. At this point, change can only be good.

— Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 24, 2016

The Twitter board also needs a shareholder who actually paid for their stock. That would do wonders to advance investor relations.

— Chris Sacca (@sacca) January 24, 2016

Twitter’s stock has continued to get hammered this year and has repeatedly sank to new all time lows. As a result of poor performance in the stock markets and with investors, Jack Dorsey lost his billionaire status last week. Since November 2014, 8 executives have left the company.

>60% gone now Only 5 of the 13 @Twitter execs that presented at their Nov 2014 analyst day are left $TWTR pic.twitter.com/FsClYPMFoH

— Rich Greenfield (@RichBTIG) January 24, 2016

However, the silver lining is that these new appointments could be the start of something new. It could be the start of the new change that Twitter needs to launch itself into the middle of the pile. Hopefully the appointments that Twitter announce to the board will be for the better.