Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will join the board of Twitter as a director of the company. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Musk had purchased 9.2 percent of the social media platform’s stock, making him the largest individual shareholder.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced the appointment on Twitter, saying, “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
He continued, “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need.”
Jack Dorsey, Founder and former CEO of Twitter, also endorsed the move. Dorsey affirmed his belief that Musk cared deeply about Twitter’s mission, and would make a great team with Parag Agarwal.
“I’m really happy Elon is joining the Twitter board! He cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it,” said Dorsey. “Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team.”
For his part, Musk said that he was “looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
Earlier today, Elon Musk took the first step towards influencing changes at Twitter by polling his followers on whether Twitter posts should have an edit button. Agrawal had retweeted his poll, saying that “the consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
The poll currently has a 73.4 percent vote for yes, and is still open.
Elon Musk has been very active on Twitter, and has amassed 80.5 million followers. He has recently been in the news for attempting to challenge the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) gag rule on his usage of the platform. His lawyer had sent a notice to judge, complaining that the SEC was harassing Musk, and that “enough is enough.”
According to the SEC filing, Twitter has named Elon Musk as a Class II Director, with an initial tenure up to 2024. Additionally, the Tesla and SpaceX founder will be limited to under 14.9 percent of Twitter’s common stock as long as he remains a board member.
