Twitter Plans To Diversify Its Board [REPORT]

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The Twitter board will soon no longer look like what it used to as the micro-blogging firm plans big changes to its board of directors, says a report from Re/code, citing multiple sources. Of note, the company made changes to its leadership just six months back.

Twitter plans to revamp its board

Twitter’s search for a new CEO has come to an end, and with it some of the members with long tenures on the board plan to leave. These BoD members have already communicated their intentions internally, the report says. The sources note that the changes will happen next year.

Twitter has its board divided into three staggered groups, and it does not allow more than three directors to appear for re-election in any cycle. Such a policy helps prevent the possibility of hostile takeovers as a minority of the board appears for re-election at any time.

In its latest annual filing, Twitter notes that Peter Chernin’s term comes to an end in 2016 and Peter Fenton’s in 2017. The board directors are allowed to step down any time they feel like or they can inform the company if they are planning to leave at the end of their term.

A change in the board means new blood and a new perspective for Twitter. Re/code previously reported that the “three Peters” all have a notable chance of departing. They are Benchmark VC Peter Fenton, investor Peter Currie and Peter Chernin, CEO of the Chernin Group. Fenton has been there on the company’s board since 2009 while Currie joined next year.

CEO intent on diversifying the board

The company’s CEO Jack Dorsey also plans to diversify the board, i.e. add more women and racially diverse board members. Early last month, before Omid Kordestani replaced former CEO Dick Costolo as Twitter chairman, there were eight members on the board with seven white men and one white woman

Twitter has not yet made a decision about who to bring onto the board. The long-time PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who joined the micro-blogging service last week, makes an interesting option. Twitter has recently been the target of criticism over its lack of diversity. Recently, one of Twitter’s ex-employees criticized the company’s diversity efforts saying, “there was very little diversity in thought and almost no diversity in action.”

 

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