Kevin Weil Resigns From Twitter Inc, Joins Instagram

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Twitter lost a handful of important executives over the weekend, including VP of Product Kevin Weil, which is a big blow. What’s an even bigger blow is losing him to a rival. Weil has been hired by Facebook-owned Instagram as the head of product, says a report from Re/code citing sources.

Executives were not fired– they resigned

According to the sources, Instagram recruited Weil months before the official announcement from Twitter regarding his departure Sunday night. The timing of Instagram hiring Weil as product head makes sense since Instagram’s head of product, Peter Dang, jumped to Oculus (another Facebook property) this month. He was working in this position for the past two+ years.

This is a painful time for Twitter since it is losing key executives one after another and lost a prominent one to arch rival Facebook. There were many reports that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Sunday night that all the executive departures were resignations, including Weil’s, but others were contradictory. If it is true that Instagram hired Weil months ago, then Dorsey’s message seems right. Also Re/code learned from several sources inside the company that the micro-blogging firm scaled back Weil’s responsibilities following the company-wide layoffs in October.

Apart from Weil, other executives also resigned, including VP of Engineering Alex Roetter and Media boss Katie Stanton, the report says. Both executives spent more than five years at Twitter. Sometime after the company’s reorganization, Roetter apparently informed Dorsey about his decision to quit, the report says.

Twitter hired its first ever marketing chief

On Tuesday, the micro-blogging site announced that Leslie Berland will be its new chief marketing officer. Berland formerly served American Express as its marketing vice president. Dorsey announced the new hire via a tweet: “Berland will join as our CMO to help tell the stories of our iconic product!” More specifically, she will be responsible for the company’s global consumer, product and sales marketing.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, will hand over the marketing duties to Berland. Noto has been juggling the role on a temporary basis. Berland will be Twitter’s first dedicated marketing chief.

On Tuesday, Twitter shares closed down 0.18% at $16.99. Year to date, the stock is down by over 26%, while in the last year, it is down by almost 57%.

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