Twitter can’t seem to stop the management bleeding, which is complicating its attempts to pull off a turnaround after a tough year of layoffs and sinking share price.
Yesterday its head of entertainment talent Lara Cohen, a major figure leading partnerships with content creators, left the company. Today, a director of finance David Bicknell is departing, though he’s more of a middle manager. Twitter declined to comment.
I've made the extremely tough decision to move on from Twitter.
— Lara Cohen 💅🏼 (@Larakate) February 21, 2017
Today is my last day at @Twitter. It has been the greatest privilege to have worked alongside such exceptional humans. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Pb34Lr8bAx
— David Bicknell (@djbicknell) February 22, 2017
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Considering that Twitter is betting big on the future of video content and is in need of financial restructuring after losing $143.6 million in Q4 2016, these exits could stall its potential recovery.
Cohen and Bicknell join a long list of Twitterers who’ve left in the past year including:
- VP of diversity and inclusion Jeffrey Siminoff
- CTO Adam Messinger
- Product VP and former TellApart CEO Josh McFarland
- COO and unofficial company mascot Adam Bain
- VP of communications Natalie Kerris
- VP of global biz dev Jana Messerschmidt
- VP of commerce and global media Nathan Hubbard
- VP of human resources Skip Schipper
Twitter appears to be in a bit of a downward talent spiral. Exec departures slow product and business development, which shakes the faith in the company’s future, which spurs further exits. Given its share price woes, it may need to spend some cash to recruit new executives that can inspire confidence in its troops, and rally them to make Twitter’s business as large as the service’s impact on the world.
