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Twitter Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain, considered largely responsible for creating Twitter’s advertising business, is emerging as a dark-horse candidate to lead the social media company when CEO Dick Costolo steps down on July 1.
Twitter former CEO and founder Jack Dorsey is returning as interim CEO, but it’s assumed that an executive search is one. Besides Bain, candidates such as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, AOL’s Tim Armstrong and Netflix’s Reed Hastings also have been name-dropped, although there are downsides to all of them. Not least of which is that they are all already very gainfully employed.
While there’s much positive buzz about Bain — he’s considered that rare combination of both a people person and an aggressive business builder — not everyone is on board with choosing him for the top spot.
A casual survey by AdWeek found analysts were both pro and con on Bain.
“At first glance, Bain seems like a natural pick given his role and reputation within the company,” Azher Ahmed, director of digital operations, DDB Chicago, told the magazine. “However, one could easily make the argument you’re picking a man who’s in charge of a problem area—monetization—and they obviously have a long way to go there. Are you magnifying the problems or giving him the free reign he needs to make more sweeping changes?”
“I don’t see Jack staying as CEO long term–I see this as a smart stability move as they do their search,” Noah Mallin, head of social at MEC North America, told AdWeek. “Adam has built and led the team that has grown and drives revenue for Twitter. They are one of the best sales teams in the industry and have the kind of low turnover and high morale that is tough to find in a fluid landscape. I think he’d be a phenomenal CEO and one who would have the immediate trust of advertisers and brands.”
The other question that needs to be answered is whether Twitter will be sold, eliminating the need for a CEO.
Brief Take: Twitter is facing a crossroads in its development: Will it be sold and become a division of a larger tech company or will it find a new CEO and keep working to deliver on its early promise of being a social media empire?
Cube image courtesy of AdWeek.
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