Leadership

Google's 11th Employee Just Became Twitter's Executive Chairman

October 14, 2015 2 min read

This story originally appeared on Fortune Magazine

Following layoffs across 8% of the company, Twitter is making news again, announcing a new board member Wednesday morning. Newly appointed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the news that Omid Kordestani, formerly Google’s longtime business chief, is joining the company’s board as executive chairman.

Twitter’s choice in a new board member makes sense, as Kordestani has built a reputation on being able to help companies create and grow revenue from nascent technologies. Kordestani joined Google in its early days in 1999, and was credited with helping the company earn advertising revenue from Google search. He held a variety of roles at Google during his tenure, including senior vice president of worldwide sales and field operations, and chief business officer. When Google announced the news of creating a new holding company, Alphabet, in August, Kordestani revealed he was stepping down from his role but would remain as an advisor to Alphabet and Google.

Prior to his time at Google, Kordestani worked at early internet juggernaut Netscape, where he reportedly increased the company’s revenue from $88 million to more than $200 million less than two years.

In a series of tweets Dorsey said of Kordestani, “Omid is a proven & experienced leader, who will directly help & coach me and our leadership, and help us recruit the best folks to Twitter.”

Kordestani replaces the empty seat left by Twitter’s former CEO Dick Costolo, who stepped down from the company’s board in early October.

Kordestani’s first order as executive chairman of Twitter’s board: Tweet more. The former executive had Tweeted only a handful of times before Wednesday’s announcement.