Twitter’s Noto among finalists as SoFi CEO

NEW YORK: Anthony Noto, Twitter Inc’s chief operating officer, is in talks with Social Finance Inc (SoFi) to become the online lending company’s new chief executive officer.

San Francisco-based SoFi has been searching for a leader since September, when co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney departed amid turmoil at the firm.

Noto has yet to accept an offer, and talks could still fall apart, according to people familiar with the matter.

He is one of fewer than a handful of finalists for the role, with as many as two women and two men in the running, said the people, who asked not to be identified since the matter is private. SoFi declined to comment.

Twitter spokeswoman Kristin Binns said: “As a policy, we don’t comment on rumours and speculation.”

The news was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter hired Noto as chief financial officer in 2014 with a stock award worth more than US $60 mil, following a career in banking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, where he helped Twitter go public.

He briefly served as the finance and operations head before taking over as chief operations officer in 2016.

Noto has played a large role in leading the company’s product vision, especially in shaping the platform’s future around live video streaming.

Tom Hutton, SoFi’s executive chairman, has been serving as interim CEO.

SoFi, one of the most valuable financial technology startups, came under criticism late this summer amid claims of sexual harassment and fraudulent actions by managers.

Cagney quit amid the company turmoil, and other high ranking executives have also left, including the chief financial officer and chief revenue officer.