Twitter has appointed Patrick Pichette, most recently chief financial officer at Google parent Alphabet, as its new chairman.
London-based Pichette has served as the company鈥檚 lead independent director since the beginning of 2019. Before joining Google, Pichette worked at McKinsey & Company and Bell Canada from 2001 until 2008.
The Oxford graduate鈥檚 appointment to chair follows the social network鈥檚 agreement with investor Elliott Management, which had reportedly hoped to oust Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and pushed for improved corporate governance and a higher share price.
Under the agreement Dorsey remains CEO of the social network, but Jesse Cohn of Elliott Management, alongside Silver Lake鈥檚 co-chief executive Egon Durban and AI expert Fei-Fei Lei joined the board.
Twitter鈥檚 executive chairman Omid Kordestani, who has also previously worked at Google, stepped down at the beginning of the month but will stay on the board as a non-employee director.
鈥淚t has been my great pleasure to work alongside Twitter鈥檚 management team and help advance its mission over the past five years,鈥� said Kordestani in a statement.
鈥淚 have seen firsthand the significant changes Twitter has undertaken to strengthen and stabilize its leadership structure to achieve long-term sustainable growth and feel confident that I can now step back from my active role as executive chair.鈥�
鈥淧atrick has been an important, independent voice in the boardroom and is the right person to assume this new role as independent chair.
鈥淚 look forward to continuing my work as a member of the Board.鈥�