Ever since he took over as the CEO, Elon Musk has introduced a slew of changes in Twitter, including an $8 Blue subscription that’ll also fetch subscribers a blue tick. And the list of changes isn’t limited to the platform alone, as the CEO is also planning on a major restructuring of his company, with reports stating he might let as much as 25% of its workforce go. We take a look at some of the top executives who have quit.
Parag Agrawal
The most significant decision of Musk was the sacking of CEO Parag Agarwal. The let-off was riddled with drama with Agrawal and three more executives outed within hours of Musk completing the acquisition — and even being escorted out of the building, according to some reports. An IIT and Stanford Alumnus, Agrawal joined the company in 2011 when it had only about 1,000 employees, and with time grew into a protege of sorts to the then-CEO Jack Dorsey.
Agrawal joined the company in 2011 when it had only about 1,000 employees (Express photo)
Dorsey, at the time of naming Agrawal as his replacement as CEO, spoke highly of him saying, “My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep.” Unfortunately, the tenure only lasted 11 months, as just a few months in, Elon came into the picture with his grand plans to take over Twitter and ‘make it a better place’.
While the business magnate and the CEO got along well initially, with the former even expressing how excited he was to work with Twitter and Agrawal, things started to turn sour when Musk posed a question in April asking if Twitter is “dying.” Jack Dorsey reportedly tried to patch up the relationship between Musk and Agrawal but it didn’t succeed.
Vijaya Gadde
Chief legal officer at Twitter, Vijaya Gadde handled issues like harassment, misinformation, and harmful speech on the platform. Her getting fired was not at all surprising since there’d been multiple disagreements in the past between her and the new Twitter chief. Musk had earlier criticised her decision to block the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.
Vijaya Gadde is potentially in line for a $12.5 million severance pay (Image source: YouTube)
Musk has also repeatedly voiced his dislike for Twitter’s current moderation policy, and with Gadde being at the forefront of it, it was obvious that she had to go. She is potentially in line for a $12.5 million severance pay, although that could be in limbo right now if the report claiming she was fired turns out to be true.
Sarah Personette
Twitter’s chief customer officer and one of its most senior employees, Sarah Personette quit on Friday after around four years at the company. She announced her decision with a tweet on Tuesday: “Hi folks, I wanted to share that I resigned on Friday from Twitter and my work access was officially cut off last night.” Her access to company accounts was cut off around 72 hours after she quit, she said.
Sarah Personette was Twitter’s one of the most senior female employees when she quit
Personette never stated why she resigned from Twitter. But considering the company’s staff has been in a state of confusion about their future and in stress due to deadlines for implementing several changes, this could be the likely reason.
Personette started working at Twitter in October 2018 as its vice president of global client solutions, following which she was promoted to CCO in August 2021. Before that, she had also worked as Facebook’s vice president of global business marketing for three years.
Ned Segal
Ned Segal was the chief financial officer of Twitter from 2017 to 2022 and had to part ways with the company along with Gadde and Agrawal on October 27, 2022, following Elon Musk’s takeover. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs and software company Intuit. He’s set to receive a severance pay amounting to $25.4m.
Thursday concluded 5 years @twitter. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such an incredible group of people building the world’s town square for all of our stakeholders. The work isn’t complete, but we made meaningful progress.
— Ned Segal (@nedsegal) October 28, 2022
The former CFO recently changed his Twitter bio to ‘current fan’ of Twitter.
Sean Edgett
Twitter former General Counsel Sean Edgett (Source: Edgett’s Twitter)
Sean Edgett was reportedly one of the executives hastily escorted out of Twitter HQ. He was the company’s general counsel. Ned Segal tweeted a recommendation for Edgett asking employers to get in an orderly line to hire him: “This man is a legend, he’s funny, a great friend, and the coolest cat in the hardest moments. Start forming an orderly line to hire him as GC, you want him in the trenches with you!”
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