Who could replace Elon Musk as Twitter CEO?

New York, Dec 22: Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has said he will resign as the social media giant's CEO as soon as he finds 'someone foolish enough to take the job,' two days after millions of users voted for his ouster in a poll he ran online. It must be noted that ever since the acquisition of Twitter, there has been a growing demand that Musk should step down from his role at Twitter.

The 51-year-old billionaire promised earlier to abide by the result of a Twitter poll on whether he should step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) which saw - 57.5 per cent of respondents voting 'yes', he should.

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022

The world's wealthiest man refused to accept defeat so easily and tweeted,''I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I will just run the software and servers teams.''

Inevitably, Musk's respond sent Twitter into a frenzy, with thousands of users conspiring about who could be next. One contender is Musk loyalist Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-origin software engineer, who previously worked with Twitter.

Sriram Krishnan

Born in Chennai to a traditional and middle-class family, Sriram Krishnan is general partner at investment firm Andreesen Horowitz, also called a16z. Krishnan has previously led product and engineering teams at Twitter, Meta and Microsoft.

He drove Twitter user growth to more than 20 per cent (YoY) growth in two years and launched several products, including a redesigned events experience. He headed up core product teams, including home timeline, onboarding/new user experience, search, discovery, etc. This could give him experience helpful to fulfil Musk's goal of building payment capabilities for Twitter, according to a report on CNN.

Krishnan also hosts a podcast / Youtube channel with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy.

Jared Kushner

Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Former United States president Donald Trump's son-in-law were spotted together enjoying the 2022 FIFA World Cup final over the weekend. Now there is buzz that he could be a possible choice.

Born on January 10, 1981, Kushner is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a private equity firm that derives investment from, among other sources, the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund.

Kushner is the son of the former real-estate developer Charles Kushner and is married to businesswoman Ivanka Trump, former President Trump's daughter and fellow advisor.

As a result of his father's conviction and incarceration for fraud, he took over management of his father's real estate company Kushner Companies, which launched his business career. He later also bought Observer Media, publisher of the New York Observer. He is the co-founder and part owner of Cadre, an online real-estate investment platform. He is also the co-founder of WiredScore, a company that rates the quality and resilience of digital infrastructure in buildings. He is also close to the Saudi royal family, one of Twitter's largest investors.

Sheryl Sandberg

The Financial Times suggested that Sheryl Sandberg is one of the most qualified candidates for the job. The former chief operating officer at Facebook was credited as the driving force behind the boom and advertising prowess at the company, which has since been renamed Meta Platforms.

Sandberg was one of the most prominent executives of the company and the lead architect of its ads-based business model. She joined Facebook when she was 23. After a 14-year-stint, she quit in June to focus on philanthropy. While she might be best suited for the job, convincing her to step in amid the chaos at Twitter might not be easy.

Sarah Friar

Sarah Friar is a business executive from Northern Ireland who is CEO of American technology company Nextdoor, the neighborhood network that connects neighborhood stakeholders, including neighbors, businesses, and public services, online and in real life to build stronger, more vibrant, and resilient neighborhoods.

Prior to Nextdoor, Sarah served as chief financial officer at Square (now known as Block, Inc.). Under Sarah's leadership, the company launched its initial public offering in 2015 and added $30 billion in market capitalization. Before her tenure at Square, Sarah served as senior vice president of finance & strategy at Salesforce

She grew up in the town of Sion Mills in Northern Ireland. She graduated from the University of Oxford and Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was an analyst for McKinsey, and at Goldman Sachs before becoming Chief Financial Officer at Square, and then joining Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods, as the CEO.

While a number of names have thrown their hat in the ring to assume the role of Chief Twit, however Musk has signalled that finding a successor will not be an easy task.