Roger Fingas
Twitter is on the verge of hiring Natalie Kerris — once a major communications executive with Apple — to take charge of its own communications unit, according to a report.
Kerris has been spending "a lot of time" speaking with top Twitter executives, and is considered the frontrunner for the job, Re/code said. She would be replacing Gabriel Stricker — who recently exited the company — and working closely with general counsel Vijaya Gadde.
Kerris spent 14 years at Apple, and had her hands in PR work for many of Apple's biggest products including iPhones, iPods and iPads. She officially left the company in April, and at the time hinted that she might be retiring.
Twitter management is in turmoil, having lost several key personnel including its media, product, engineering, and human resources heads. Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company last month and promised dramatic changes to make more Twitter more viable, including laying off 8 percent of the company's workforce even before the recent executive departures.
In December the company controversially recruited Apple's Jeffrey Siminoff to serve as its new VP of Diversity & Inclusion. Siminoff is a white male, which might've been less problematic except that the company has faced complaints about how it handles diversity — including some from Leslie Miley, who until he was laid off in October was Twitter's only non-white worker at a high level within engineering or product management.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
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4 Comments
If she is retiring, why work for Twitter? She is good, if she is not retiring then i would really like to know the reason why she left Apple.
Simple. A change, a challenge, something different, which gives her incentive to delay retirement for a couple of years. If the new management team is successful in saving Twitter, they are heroes, and yes that stuff does drive people like her once they reach that level and have made their money. And this isn't a long term gig. Two years from now, Twitter will either be making money or will be owned by Google, to whom Twitter had an offer on the table to sell last year but declined it in order to make one last shot at surviving independently. Either way, Kerris will retire (either to academia, philanthropy or the golf course/private yacht) for good around that time.
She is a traitor.