Twitter names Ned Segal as new CFO
Twitter has announced the appointment of Ned Segal as as its new chief financial officer, who will succeed the current incumbent Anthony Noto, in late August – a permanent appointment that comes just weeks after chief executive Jack Dorsey talked-up its future adtech investment.
Twitter's leadership team has been publicly talking up its intentions to better monetize its 300 million-plus user-base
In his new role, Segal will report directly to Twitter chief Dorsey and will oversee the publicly-listed company’s finance, accounting, corporate development, corporate security, financial planning and analysis, as well as investor relations, real estate, plus tax and treasury areas of the business.
Segal takes over from Noto, who has held this role plus that of chief operating officer since November 2016, and brings with him over 20 year’s experience in the finance and capital markets sector.
Most recently he served as Intuit’s senior vice president of finance for small business, having previously held the role of chief financial officer of RPX Corporation as well as multiple roles at Goldman Sachs in the technology capital markets sector.
Commenting on the appointment, Dorsey said Segal’s experience of finance at publicly-listed companies would help accelerate its momentum, audience growth as well as monetization given his “engaging and rigorous approach to the role of CFO”.
Segal added: “I’ve long admired Twitter’s impact in the world, and I’m committed to helping the Company build on its recent momentum, allocate resources against its greatest priorities, and continue toward its goal of GAAP profitability and beyond.”
Twitter said the appointment of Segal as chief finance officer was unrelated to the financial expectations in its previously provided guidance in its first quarter earnings earlier this year (its next quarterly earnings are due to be announced on July 27).
Speaking on stage at Cannes Lions last month Twitter’s Jack Dorsey said the company told attendees that he planned to “double down” own on adtech investment, claiming it had learned from its previous mistakes of not fully exploiting its adtech investment.
“We acquired companies or platforms [such as MoPub] and didn’t give them the options that they needed or tie it together with everything else that we’re doing,” he said. “And that doesn’t set up the acquisition for success. So, we’re [now] being really deliberate in what we look at and why.”
Earlier this year, Twitter also marked its intentions to better monetize its user-base with the appointment of adtech veteran – (previously he was the chief executive of adtech outfit Turn) Bruce Falck, who joined as general manager of revenue product, and similar to Segal will report directly to Dorsey.
That hire was very much seen as a push by Twitter to bring advertisers a more targeted and measurable offering as well as stand up against Google and Facebook, which control in excess of 70% of the market.