Twitter to Revamp Leadership Under CEO Jack Dorsey 

Alex Roetter, head of engineering, and Kevin Weil, product chief, are among the four executives who are leaving

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey is revamping his top ranks as he tries to find ways to revive the social media company and earn the trust of investors.

The company confirmed late Sunday that four top executives are leaving the company, characterizing the departures as voluntary. Among them are engineering chief Alex Roetter, product head Kevin Weil, human-resources vice president Skip Schipper and media head Katie Stanton.

At the same time, Twitter plans to bring in two new board members as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one of the people is a high-profile executive in the media industry.

The two additions to the board are expected to be the first of many. Mr. Dorsey, who was previously chairman of Twitter, had told the company that one condition of returning as CEO was that the entire board must eventually be replaced, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

The board includes Evan Williams, who co-founded Twitter along with Mr. Dorsey and is one of the largest individual owners of Twitter stock.

It is unclear if Mr. Williams will be replaced, or if Twitter will refill the departing executives’ positions.

Ms. Stanton had informed the company of her intention to quit weeks earlier, while Mr. Roetter had told Mr. Dorsey he considered resigning several months ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tech news website Re/code earlier reported on the departures and the new board members.

In a statement Sunday, Mr. Dorsey praised the four executives and said they “are taking some well-deserved time off.” He said technology chief Adam Messinger will now be overseeing engineering, consumer product, design, research, user services and app development in one group. In addition, COO Adam Bainwill be overseeing Ms. Stanton’s media team, Mr. Schipper’s HR team and parts of the revenue-related product teams on a interim basis.

The executive upheaval comes as Mr. Dorsey tries to get a handle on the company that had fallen into disarray under his predecessor, CEO Dick Costolo.

Frequent management changes, strategy shifts and a sinking stock price had paralyzed the company. Twitter failed to evolve its product in a way to appeal to the mainstream mass, resulting in investor concern and stunted growth.

Mr. Dorsey has made several roster moves since officially taking over as CEO on Oct. 5, including cutting jobs and naming Google’s former chief business officer, Omid Kordestani, as Twitter’s executive chairman.

Mr. Dorsey has repeatedly said his focus will be to make Twitter easier to use. Under his watch, the company has released a news curation feature called Moments, which Ms. Stanton led, and changed its “favorite” star button to a “like” heart icon. The company is also reportedly working to extend Twitter’s identifying 140-character limit to 10,000.

But these changes and proclamations have done little to stem the stock slide. Since Twitter named Mr. Dorsey CEO, its stock has fallen 37% to $17.84. Shares hit an all-time low of $16.69 last Tuesday.

Clearing the management decks is hardly a surprise for a new CEO.

At Twitter, it has become par for the course as a revolving door of executives came and went in recent years. The ever-changing lineup has led to organizational confusion and departures further down the ranks.

Messrs. Weil and Roetter and Ms. Stanton are veteran Twitter executives who joined the company at a time when it was bursting onto the scene as the next Internet sensation after Facebook Inc. In his note, Mr. Dorsey said prior to their most recent roles, Messrs. Weil and Roetter had built the company’s advertising business to the “over-$2 billion run rate it is today.” But in recent years, Twitter’s user growth has flatlined as newcomers found the service difficult to use.

The departures of Messrs. Weil and Roetter came after months of interviews with employees, some of whom the chief executive tried to persuade to stay on.

Under Mr. Weil, who before his latest role had no experience in consumer product, the product team got hung up on endless experiments and reams of data, according to people close to the company.

Mr. Weil’s exit comes a little over a year after Mr. Costolo elevated him to lead product at Twitter in what has become a ill-fated role. When Mr. Weil took over product in October 2014, he became the company’s fifth product head in as many years.

Mr. Roetter joined Twitter in 2010 and is a former Google engineer. He recently faced scrutiny from former Twitter employees who claimed he didn’t do enough to increase diversity among engineers. Mr. Roetter has disputed some accusations but apologized and has said, “I realize that we have blind spots, myself included.”

Ms. Stanton, who is responsible for Twitter’s media partnerships with news, TV, sports and music, joined Twitter in 2010 and was elevated to run global media in 2014.

Twitter’s eight-person board includes venture capitalist Peter Fenton, Hollywood executive Peter Chernin and Silicon Valley business executive Peter Currie.

Mr. Kordestani, who joined the board in October, is leading the search for the new members along with Mr. Dorsey, a person familiar said.

Investors will be watching Twitter’s fourth-quarter earnings closely for any signs of progress when the company expects to announce them on Feb. 10.

Of particular focus will be Twitter’s user growth. In the prior quarter, Twitter showed little movement in the number of users who sign into the service on the Web or its mobile application at least once a month. That total grew by three million, or 1%, to 307 million. Including users who access the service through messaging platforms, the user base rose 1.3% to 320 million.

Source: WSJ – Twitter to Revamp Leadership Under CEO Jack Dorsey

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