Twitter Names Google's 'Business Founder' Omid Kordestani as New Executive Chairman

Last week, when Twitter named Jack Dorsey permanent CEO, the company said it was looking to bring in an outsider to replace Dorsey as chairman of its board. That outsider: Omid Kordestani, long-time chief business officer of Google and former adviser to Alphabet, its new holding company.

As part of the move, Kordestani is stepping away from his role at Alphabet, according to a Twitter spokesperson. Google then shared the following statement with Re/code: “We’re excited for Omid and very happy for Twitter. Omid was instrumental in establishing Google’s business and helped us develop really close, longstanding partnerships across the industry. We wish him every success in the years ahead.”

The appointment is a big one, and particularly interesting given how chummy Twitter and Google have become over the last six months. The two companies have announced numerous partnerships, including an important one to bring tweets into Google search results, and it was widely speculated that Google would acquire Twitter during the company’s tumultuous summer. Now it’s bringing one of Google’s top executives into the family.

Kordestani, who is affectionately known as the “business founder” of Google, was the search engine’s first sales chief and held the top position until 2009. He returned to the job unexpectedly last summer, only to transition out of it (this month, officially) to join Alphabet.

A well-liked executive in Silicon Valley, Kordestani has advised several tech companies, including Spotify, where he sat on the board, and the social media service Klout. He is also, like other Twitter board members, not a frequent tweeter. He joined the service in 2010 and has sent off 11 tweets, including one this morning announcing his transition.

This is likely just the first of numerous board changes at Twitter. Former CEO Dick Costolo already stepped down from the board last week, and Re/code has reported that others are likely to do the same now that Twitter has found its permanent CEO.

The appointment comes just 24 hours after Twitter announced company-wide layoffs in which it cut more than 300 people. Dorsey and Kordestani announced the news Wednesday morning in respective tweets.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/654280723113766912

https://twitter.com/omidkordestani/status/654281177835016192

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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