The Biggest Challenge for Twitter’s New CEO Will Be Managing Elon Musk

Elon Musk joked in December that he’d step down as Twitter’s chief executive officer once he found someone “foolish enough” to take his place. Now that he’s found that person, a looming question is whether he’ll get out of her way—or make her feel foolish for having accepted.

At first glance Musk’s choice, outgoing NBCUniversal Media LLC ad chief Linda Yaccarino, looks like an ideal pick. She has deep media business relationships and offers Twitter the chance for a face-saving reset with advertisers, who have been fleeing the social network since Musk bought it in October. Following the news of her hiring, advertising agency GroupM, which counts Coca-Cola Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google as clients, removed its designation of Twitter as “high risk,” a label it put on the platform after Musk took over.