Linda Yaccarino Will Be the Next Twitter CEO — How Much Will She Make?

After a whirlwind ride at Twitter for the past few years, CEO Elon Musk is preparing to step down from the chief executive role in the coming weeks, The Washington Post reports. Soon there will be a new Twitter CEO. How much will Linda Yaccarino's salary be, and how will she run the company?

Employment and operations at Twitter have been anything but smooth since Tesla CEO Elon Musk decided to purchase the social media platform. A lot has happened at Twitter since Musk took over, including laying off of about three-quarters of the employees. Now, it seems Musk is ready to hand over the reins.

Yaccarino is currently the head of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, as The Verge reports. The Post originally indicated that she'd been tapped to take over at Twitter, but it wasn't a done deal yet. However, on May 12, 2023, Musk tweeted again about the new CEO, this time naming Linda Yaccarino for the role. No salary figures have been mentioned.

Given the rollercoaster at Twitter in past months filled with layoffs and high-profile people and businesses leaving the platform, many are curious about how Yaccarino will handle things at Twitter. As the Post noted, there's a question of whether she'll bring Twitter back to its pre-Musk days or reinforce the way Musk has run the company with a bent towards unlimited free speech.

Yaccarino has worked at Turner in the past, as an executive vice president and COO of Advertising Sales, Marketing & Operations, according to GHbase.com.

Yaccarino chairs global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, where she is the head of about 2,000 employees. That team has built partnerships with Snapchat, Buzzfeed, Twitter, Apple News, and more.

The Verge reported that it seems Musk and Yaccarino "see eye to eye politically." Musk hasn't fully identified as either Democrat or Republican, but his actions tend toward the far right. He's frequently criticized "woke" viewpoints such as respecting people's pronouns and was very against vaccine mandates.

Some criticize Yaccarino's past work with the World Economic Forum, an organization that Musk has publicly criticized as well. People may view her affiliation with the WEF as a sign that she'll attempt to return to pre-Musk Twitter days of hindering what the far right view as free speech on the platform.

As the Post noted, Musk responded to those concerns on Twitter. According to Musk, Twitter's “commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged.”

On Friday, May 12, Yaccarino officially announced her resignation from her NBCUniversal role. CNN reported her as stating, “It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team.” It will likely be a difficult time for NBCUniversal to lose her, with advertising revenues down across the industry.

Tesla's share price has suffered since Musk took over Twitter, which is something analysts usually attribute to investors' waning confidence that Musk could manage so many companies at once. His announcement of Yaccarino as CEO comes a few days before Tesla's annual shareholder meeting.

A number of advertisers have fled Twitter since Musk took over. Data from Pathmatics by Sensor Tower reported that 625 of Twitter's top 1,000 advertisers had pulled ad dollars, based on data running through January 25, 2023. Brands like Coca-Cola, Jeep, Unilever, and Wells Fargo were among those who had stopped ad spending.

Musk ran a poll on Twitter in the fall of 2022 asking whether he should stay on as CEO, with 57 percent of those participating saying Musk should give up the position. In December, as CNN reports, Musk said he'd find a replacement “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”

Yaccarino is married to Claude Peter Madrazo. They have two children together, Christian and Matthew. Overall, she keeps her family life fairly private.