Two years ago, Linda Yaccarino left her job as the lead executive in charge of global advertising and partnerships at Comcast’s NBC Universal to take a new role as the CEO of social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Her hiring fulfilled a promise by X owner Elon Musk to hire a lead executive who could handle the day-to-day operations of the platform while he stepped aside to handle his duties elsewhere. Yaccarino was immediately tasked with winning back users and advertisers alike, many of whom were disenfranchised by Musk’s personal antics.
“We’re on the precipice of making history, and that’s not an empty promise — that’s our reality,” Yaccarino wrote in a note shortly after her hiring at X. “When you start by wrapping your arms around this powerful vision, literally everything is possible. You have to genuinely believe — and work hard for that belief.”
Yaccarino’s note was filled with motivational buzzwords and phrases, but didn’t outline how she will turn the ship around at Twitter — and, as it turns out, she never made much progress on a promise to create “the world’s most-accurate, real-time information source” and a “global town square for communication.”
On Wednesday, Yaccarino said she was leaving X.
Coincidentally, the announcement of her departure came just hours after the New York Times reported that Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by X, posted anti-Semitic and racist remarks in response to user queries with little provocation.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” the X account associated with Grok said this week. “Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.” (xAI is a technology company associated with Grok and X.)
Yaccarino’s departure was in the works before the Grok controversy erupted, the New York Times reported, citing three unnamed sources. She did not provide a reason for her decision to leave, but praised Musk for hiring her in the first place, calling the CEO role “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Yaccarino’s position as CEO was not an ordinary one: In addition to running the company, she had to win back advertisers and users who fled the platform over Musk’s antics. At one point, Yaccarino claimed that 96 of X’s top advertisers had returned, and she successfully forged a partnership with her former colleagues at NBC Universal to make X the official platform for shoulder programming and clips from the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the United States. (X has similar arrangements with sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, some of which pre-dated Yaccarino’s time at the company, but relationships that she nonetheless nurtured.)
Despite the controversies associated with X largely brought on by Musk, Yaccarino remained a loyal lieutenant in his corporate army and advocated strongly for X’s place on the Internet.
Yaccarino’s son, Matt Madrazo, continues to work at X in an advertising sales role.
