Here Are A Number Of Twitter CEO Candidates To Replace Elon Musk

Sheryl Sandberg, a former COO Meta who may be suitable as CEO of Twitter. (photo: Instagram @sherylsandberg)

JAKARTA – The owner of Twitter Inc., Elon Musk once said he would seek a new CEO for Twitter after users voted for him in a pool to leave the post. But who, according to Musk, would be the one "stupid enough to take the job"?

This is a question that has been asked a lot in conversation over the past week. Musk himself appears to have not conducted a formal search for a potential new CEO. Given her tendency to lie back on her own words, she probably isn't trying to find someone.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that after finding a CEO, he will continue to run the "software & servers team". That's basically running the entire company.

But Musk would eventually find a CEO, not only because he told Twitter investors he would, but because it was the rational thing for him to do.

The Verge tried to filter out some of the names that have been considered as possible candidates if Musk did give up control of Twitter.

Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta

Pros: This choice is probably the most obvious choice, especially if Musk does what he says and continues to lead the engineering team at Twitter after appointing a new CEO. Sandberg has the rep with advertisers and the connections Musk needs to start fixing Twitter's spiraling business. And she became a free agent after leaving Meta last year.

Cons: Musk isn't a big fan of Facebook, and they probably wouldn't get along. Sandberg also seems happy to be focusing on his philanthropy and family life these days.

Emmett Shear, co-founder and CEO of Twitch

Pros: As co-founder and current head of Twitch, he has successfully sold social media companies to tech giants and has the experience Musk needs for his plans to turn Twitter into more than a video platform for content creators. Plus, I've heard that the Twitch org is in a mess lately.

Cons: He hasn't led a public company yet, and Musk plans to bring Twitter back to the public market in a few years. And Twitch hasn't managed to expand beyond the mainstream niche of live streaming gamers.

Vanessa Pappas, COO of TikTok

Pros: She has the experience Musk needs, having first helped support YouTube's early creator program and more recently as TikTok's COO. There have been rumors that she might be planning on leaving TikTok/ByteDance this year.

Cons: If Musk were looking for someone a major advertiser knew to lead Twitter, he wouldn't be a top choice because his focus is primarily on product and creators.

Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo

Pros: Lanzone's background is more in media and advertising, besides his brief stint as CEO of Tinder. He now leads Yahoo but may be jumping at the right opportunity. He has connections with the advertising community and operating experience that Musk and the constitution can use to deal with Musk's antics.

Cons: It's unclear whether he wants to work for Musk and overcome the headaches that Twitter has right now.

Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram

Pros: When it comes to product lineage and cut, the co-founder and former CEO of Instagram is definitely a top pick. He's been unemployed since leaving Instagram/Facebook in 2018 after falling out with Mark Zuckerberg, though he showed interest in TikTok's social media model of parsing in-feed recommendations from a person's social graph, on last year's Lex Fridman podcast. That's exactly what Musk wants Twitter to focus on.

Cons: She has worked for an opinionated founder/CEO, made a lot of money, and doesn't seem to want to do it all anymore. Nor does it have the level of clout with the advertising community that Musk might seek.