Twitter boss Jack Dorsey to keep job after leadership review from board members

Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey has survived a review of his leadership from the company’s own board members after questions about his leadership from activist investors.

A committee of Twitter directors has “confidence in management and recommended that the current structure remain in place”, the company said on Monday night.

The announcement, which follows a months-long review of Twitter’s leadership, is effectively a statement of confidence in Mr Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006. 

The review was launched as part of an agreement between Twitter and the prominent activist investor Elliott Management, which had raised questions over Mr Dorsey’s part-time role in charge of the company. 

Mr Dorsey also runs financial technology company Square, and before this year’s pandemic, had expressed a desire to spend much of this year in Africa.

Elliott had taken a 4pc stake in Twitter and had tried to force out Mr Dorsey before a truce this year that kept the chief executive in the job but triggered a review of his role by a committee of six board members. Since then, Twitter’s shares and finances have improved, partly down to an increase in usage resulting from the pandemic and protests over the summer months.

On Monday Twitter said the committee had “assessed the current management structure, new operating plan and procedures put in place by the company’s CEO, as well as the Company’s significantly improving product, operational and financial performance through the most recently reported quarter. 

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It added: “The committee expressed its confidence in management and recommended that the current structure remain in place.”

Twitter also said it planned to shake up how board members are elected, requiring them to win investors’ backing each year, and that it had put in a succession plan for Mr Dorsey that was “in line with best practices”.

It added that the company would resume a programme of $2bn (£1.6bn) in share buybacks in this quarter. Twitter shares rose a little more than 1pc after the announcement.