Twitter Poaches NBCUniversial Staffer For Business Operations

Incoming Twitter Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino has tapped one of her top lieutenants from NBCUniversal to join her as she prepares to take the helm at the social-media company.

Joe Benarroch is taking on a senior business operations role, according to The Wall Street Journal citing a memo Benarroch sent to NBCUniversal colleagues. 

Benarroch has served as executive vice president of communications, global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, where Yaccarino for years has run the media company’s ad sales operation. He has been one of her most trusted advisers.

Joe Benarroch

“Tomorrow, I start a different professional adventure at Twitter, taking on a role focusing on business operations,” Benarroch wrote in the memo. He noted that he has worked with Yaccarino to champion and grow the company’s business priorities and help build partnerships, among other things. “I am looking forward to bringing my experience to Twitter, and to working with the entire team to build Twitter 2.0 together.”

Musk has said Yaccarino will focus primarily on business operations, while he will focus on product design and technology. 

Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion but has struggled to stabilize the business after many advertisers, put off by his approach to content moderation, left the platform or slashed their spending. Musk has made various efforts to encourage advertisers to return. Yaccarino’s deep relationships on Madison Avenue could help that cause, ad executives have said.

The addition of Benarroch comes amid turnover in Twitter’s upper ranks in recent days. Last week, Twitter lost two key executives: Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, who was in charge of handling content moderation decisions, and A.J. Brown, head of brand safety and ad quality, The Wall Street Journal reported.