MAINZ, Germany — A day after microblogging service Twitter announced a huge round of layoffs under its new, official head Jack Dorsey—who has led the company as interim chief executive for the last four months—the company has now announced that Iranian-born Kurdish American Omid Kordestani will be appointed as its new executive chairman.
Kordestani, who has roots in Iranian Kurdistan and grew up in Tehran and the US, worked in the past with companies like Hewlett-Packard and Netscape. In May 1999 he joined Google, and served as its chief business officer. “He brought Google to profitability in record time, generating more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006,” according to a Google statement.
In 2014 he was appointed chief business officer for Google. In the last few months, however, it looks like he took a step back from having a central role at the company. When Google made its Alphabet split this past summer, he quietly became an advisor to Alphabet and Google without a specific title.
A Google spokesperson said to the press: “We’re excited for Omid and very happy for Twitter. Omid was instrumental in establishing Google’s business and helped us develop really close, longstanding partnerships across the industry. We wish him every success in the years ahead.”
Having held both CEO advisory and executive sales roles at the US search giant, Kordestani will surely bring some strong commercial and business experience to Twitter at a crucial time for the company.
Twitter’s business and especially its stock have been going up and down since its entry into the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in November 2013. As a result, Dick Costelo, Twitter’s then chief, announced his resignation on July 1.
Jack Dorsey wrote on Twitter: “Omid is a proven [and] experienced leader, who will directly help [and] coach me and our leadership, and help us recruit the best folks to Twitter. A great chairperson is the first step towards continuing to make our Board one of the best in the world, and purpose-built to serve Twitter.”
And Kordestani himself wrote: “Excited to work with [Jack Dorsey], the Twitter Board [Adam Bain, Anthony Noto) and the rest of the team to grow Twitter’s impact and business.”
Kordestani is just one of many Kurds who have made it to the top of US giants. Another Kurd, Hamdi Ulukaya, who became a billionaire with his strained yogurt brand Chobani, has committed himself to help Kurdish refugees in need. In 2015 he announced he would donate at least half of his wealth to refugees.
