Twitter adds two board members amid struggles, lack of diversity

SAN FRANCISCO: TWITTER IS shaking up its board with two new directors as it grapples with slowing user growth and mounting competition from Facebook and Google.

The additions are unlikely to appease critics who have called for the mostly white male board to diversify its ranks with underrepresented minorities and women.

Hugh Johnston, who is vice-chairman and chief financial officer of PepsiCo, and Martha Lane Fox, an Internet entrepreneur, will join the board. Two directors, Peter Currie and Peter Chernin, who were not considered for re-election this year, are leaving, according to a regulatory filing. The moves, made last week, were effective immediately.

WOMAN DIRECTOR

Since before its November 2013 initial public offering, Twitter has faced criticism for its mostly white male board. In response, publishing industry executive Marjorie Scardino became the first woman director, and former Google executive Omid Kordestani, who is Iranian-American, joined the board.

Perhaps anticipating more criticism, Kordestani, Twitter’s executive chairman, hinted more diversity would come.

“The entire board is working to bring greater diversity to our ranks. Watch this space,” he tweeted on Friday.

Twitter founder and returning CEO Jack Dorsey is in the midst of a turnaround effort of the 10-year-old company.

Revenue is growing quickly, but not as quickly as it used to, and analysts expect that trend to continue. Twitter has more than 300 million users, among them pop stars, Hollywood glitterati and world leaders. But it’s dwarfed by other services – it’s one-fifth the size of Facebook and smaller even than Facebook-owned photo-sharing service, Instagram, and growth has stagnated.