Executives are leaving the nest at Twitter, with the latest moves including the re-assignment of CFO Mike Gupta to Senior Vice President, Strategic Investments; and the hiring of Anthony Noto as Twitter's new CFO.
Other recent changes at the Big Blue Bird include the resignation of COO Ali Rowghani and media head Chloe Sladden.
Noto arrives from Goldman Sachs, where he served as a managing director in their Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking Group from 2010 through June 2014. He began his career with Goldman Sachs in 1999, left the company to assume the role of CFO for the National Football League in 2008, a position he held for two years. Noto holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
In his role with Goldman Sachs Noto was instrumental in helping Twitter's IPO launch successfully in November 2013. He apparently had planned to leave Goldman Sachs for Coatue, a hedge fund, but chose to join Twitter instead.
Speculation is abound on the reason for Noto's hiring. Noto will be well compensated - his package includes an annual $250,000 salary and stock options that at present value represent approximately $85 million in worth. Other reasons include his familiarity with the company and his close relations with Wall Street. Also, as Twitter seeks to recruit new advertisers and audiences, Noto's NFL background could serve the company well; especially since Twitter intends to aggressively pursue the sports market for both revenue and membership.
Noto may also be on the scene to address Twitter's biggest problem at present; a fall-off in the rate of new users that populate the social media platform. At its current level of 255 million users, the company is still well short of the 400 million monthly active users that it promised investors by the end of last year. This is a red flare to Wall Street, and Noto's relationship with the Street may help foster a more sympathetic reaction to Twitter's stunted growth.
Meanwhile, Ali Rowghani, who was expected to solve this problem, is said to have left after a disagreement with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo over division of responsibilities. According to tweets from both Rowghani and Costolo, the separation was amicable, and in fact Rowghani will continue with the company as a strategic advisor to the CEO. Interestingly, Twitter does not intend to fill Rowghani's COO position.
