He tweeted, “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”

Yaccarino has been a public advocate for Musk’s ownership of Twitter since the billionaire bought the platform in October. The duo appeared onstage together in April during the inaugural Possible marketing event in Miami for a keynote around “Twitter 2.0.”

NBCUniversal has also expanded its Twitter partnership under Musk. Twitter did not put on an official NewFronts advertising event this year, as it had in past years. But the company held a smaller presentation during the week for clients, and announced expanded Olympics and Paralympics partnerships with NBCUniversal around the 2024 Paris Summer Games. 

Yaccarino has long been one of advertising’s most dynamic forces. She joined NBCUniversal in 2011 after spending two decades at Turner. Initially, she was in charge of cable and digital sales, but within two years was elevated to head up all the cable and broadcast networks under a single portfolio—a then-revolutionary shake-up that was eventually adopted by almost all of her competitors.

As Twitter CEO, Yaccarino will be tasked with helping restore advertiser faith in a platform that has grown increasingly destabilized since Musk’s rocky takeover. According to a Bloomberg report, Twitter advertising dollars have plummeted 89% since Musk bought the platform and revenue dropped by half.

If anyone can help restore advertiser confidence in Twitter, it will likely be Yaccarino. Longtime advertising industry vet Lou Paskalis tweeted that Yaccarino “would be my first choice, and my only choice, to save the platform from the hands of its owner.”

Yaccarino is the second major NBCUniversal exec to depart the company in the last month. CEO Jeff Shell was fired in April following what was described as “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.” 

More upfront week tumult

The Yaccarino news is the latest shakeup in what is shaping up to be a tumultuous upfront week. Wednesday night, Netflix shifted to an all-virtual upfront week presentation after hearing of the WGA’s planned protest during its May 17 event.

NBCUniversal was among the upfront week presenters who told Adweek on Thursday they would be moving forward with in-person events despite the possibility of picketers.  

Marshall told Adweek earlier this week that “NBCU will have an extremely powerful upfront show and will still have great talent participating.”