Twitter Vet Jessica Verrilli Returns to Fill Key M&A Role

Twitter brought back a familiar face on Thursday to join its mergers and acquisitions team. Jessica Verrilli, a longtime member of Twitter’s corporate development team before departing for a short stint at Google Ventures in May, is now back in a senior role on overseeing some of the company’s M&A initiatives.

It’s a key hire for Twitter, which lost its M&A head Rishi Garg back in June. (Garg had actually joined Twitter from Square, CEO Jack Dorsey’s other company, a year earlier.) That position is still not filled, according to a Twitter spokesperson.*

Dorsey’s appointment, it turns out, was one of the key reasons Verrilli came back. "@Jack, @AdamBain and @AnthonyNoto are leading by example," she tweeted. "The *entire* team is setting a new course the world is only beginning to see."

Twitter had been active as a buyer for the first part of the year before Garg’s departure. It hasn’t made a significant acquisition since acquiring Whetlab back in June.

With user growth still a problem at the company, it’s possible it will look to acquire its way to more users, which generally means consumer products. Verrilli knows this well. She was heavily involved with Twitter’s Periscope acquisition, according to sources, which has become an important part of Twitter’s video strategy.

⚡️ Some news: I'm going back to @Twitter! I believe completely in this team. I love this company. And I’m in for the next chapter!

— Jessica Verrilli (@jess) October 29, 2015

@Jess is back! Let's go! https://t.co/5PlxMQjFpc

— Jack (@jack) October 29, 2015

Company correction: A previous version of this story said that Verrilli would be running Twitter’s M&A team, according to information provided by the company. She will be serving in a senior leadership role, but the top M&A job is still vacant, according to a company spokesperson.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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