Twitter Advertising Exec Resigns After Musk Takeover

Tom Jowitt,
ISIS

Chief Commercial Officer at Twitter, Sarah Personette, confirms she resigned last Friday after Elon Musk takeover

Another high level departure at Twitter has emerged on Tuesday, after Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Sarah Personette confirmed she had resigned.

Personette tweeted on Tuesday that she had actually resigned last Friday, and that her work access was officially cut off on Monday night.

Her departure came as something of a surprise, considering that on Thursday she had tweeted that she had had a “great discussion” with Elon Musk.

twitter, social media

CCO departure

Personette had also added last Thursday that “our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged. Looking forward to the future!”

Just one day later however and Personette handed in her resignation.

Her tweet confirming her resignation was liked by Martha Lane Fox, one of Twitter’s board of directors – that is until Elon Musk dissolved the board altogether, leaving him as sole director and CEO.

Personette was one of Twitter’s most senior female employees and had worked for four years at the platform, having previously worked at Facebook.

Her departure came after Musk on Thursday night had fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.

It has also emerged that Twitter’s general counsel Sean Edgett was let go.

Musk meanwhile is reportedly planning to let go a quarter (or 2,000) staff at the platform and is considering changes to its verification system.

Advertiser reassurance

In her resignation tweet, Personette thanked her team and said it had been an honour to work with them.

She didn’t state why she had resigned from Twitter and she made no mention of Elon Musk in her departure comments.

But she did try to reassure Twitter’s advertisers in her departure tweets.

“I want everyone to know I do believe the new administration understands the importance of holding up the standards of GARM,” Personette tweeted.

GARM refers to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

Advertisers are closely watching to see what Musk will do with Twitter, with General Motors saying last Friday it would temporarily halt paid advertising on Twitter and was engaging with the company “to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership”.

Tesla staff

Meanwhile it is reported by CNBC that Elon Musk is asking Twitter staff to redesign their subscription and verification systems within one week.

Twitter staff reportedly say managers have instructed them to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week to hit Musk’s aggressive deadlines and that their jobs are at stake.

Musk has also reportedly authorised dozens of Autopilot software engineers, and other Tesla staff, to do code reviews and more at the social network.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal has reported that Elon Musk will no longer allow subscribers of its Blue service to access ad-free articles.

Twitter Blue was launched in June last year as the platform’s first subscription service that offered exclusive access to premium features, including an option to edit tweets.

The service allowed subscribers to read articles from some publishers without advertisements.

The social media platform also made an edit button available to paid subscribers in the United States last month.