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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Chris Katje

Meet The Twitter Board Of Directors: The People Deciding The Fate Of Elon Musk's Takeover Bid

With reports indicating that the sale of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) to Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk could be finalized as early as Monday, the Board of Directors of the leading social media platform are faced with a major decision on the future of the company.

The directors are currently weighing a $54.20 per share takeover offer by the world’s richest man.

Here are the members of the Board of Directors for Twitter:

Bret Taylor: Board Chairman Bret Taylor has been on the Twitter Board since 2016 and is also the co-CEO of Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM). Prior to Salesforce, Taylor was the CEO and co-founder of Quip, a company that was acquired by Salesforce. Taylor also previously was the Chief Technology Officer of Facebook Inc, now known as Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB). Taylor was also the CEO of former social media network FriendFeed Inc.

Parag Agrawal: The current CEO of Twitter joined the company in 2011 and was the Chief Technology Officer prior to being named the CEO to replace co-founder Jack Dorsey who stepped down in November 2021.

Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal

Mimi Alemayehou: The current Senior Vice President of Public-Private Partnership at Mastercard (NYSE:MA) previously served as the Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a position she was appointed to by former President Barack Obama. The portfolio of OPIC grew by 24% to $18 billion from 2010 to 2014 with Alemayehou leading. Alemayehou also was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. Executive Director on the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank.

Jack Dorsey: Despite being a co-founder of Twitter, Dorsey is given the shortest biography on the company’s Board of Directors page where it says, “Jack Dorsey co-founded Twitter Inc in 2006. Additionally, Jack co-founded Square, where he serves as CEO and Chairman.” Dorsey served as the CEO of Twitter on two occasions before stepping down in November 2021. Dorsey remains the CEO of Block Inc (NYSE:SQ), the new name of Square.

Related Link: 5 Fun Facts You Might Not Know About Jack Dorsey

Egon Durban: Silver Lake co-CEO Durban has been a member of the Twitter Board since March 2020. Durban serves as Chairman of the Board of UFC parent Endeavor Group Holdings (NYSE:EDR). Soccer fans might also know that Durban is on the Board of Directors of City Football Group, the parent of English Premier League team Manchester City.

Martha Lane Fox: The founder and Chair of private karaoke company Lucky Voice Group, Lane Fox has been a Board member for Twitter since April 2016. Lane Fox is also a member of the Joint Committee for National Security Strategy and is a crossbench peer in the United Kingdom House of Lords.

Omid Kordestani: The former executive chairman of Twitter, Kordestani remains a member of the Board of Directors and has been since October 2015. Kordestani previously worked at Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) in roles that included Chief Business Officer at Google.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li: A professor at Stanford University, Fei-Fei Li is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Li previously served as the Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud.

Patrick Pichette: The former Chief Financial Officer of Google, Pichette has served on the Twitter Board since December 2017. Pichette is a general partner at Inovia Capital, a venture capital firm in Canada.

David Rosenblatt: One of the longest serving members of the Twitter Board is Rosenblatt, who has held a role since December 2011. Rosenblatt is the CEO of 1stdibs.com Inc (NASDAQ:DIBS). Rosenblatt had a long history at Google and was the part of the initial management team of DoubleClick where he served as CEO before it was acquired by the tech giant.

Robert Zoellick: Since July 2018, Zoellick has been a member of the Twitter Board. Zoellick recently made headlines when it was pointed out that he has a verified Twitter account and has yet to actually tweet or like anything on the platform. Zoellick is the former Chairman of AllianceBernstein Holding (NYSE:AB). Zoellick also previously held numerous positions within the U.S. Government.

Why It’s Important: The Board of Directors serves the company’s best interests and helps lead the company’s direction. It was pointed out by Unusual Whales on Twitter that the Board of Directors collectively owns 2.37% of Twitter, including a 2.2% stake by Dorsey.

Musk owns 9.1% of the company and has offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. While the Board hasn’t flat out rejected the offer, they did enact a poison pill, which was seen as an act of retaliation against Musk to make sure he doesn’t perform a hostile takeover.

Dorsey spoke out publicly about the Twitter Board of Directors being the dysfunction of the company.

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