TWTR Twitter Inc

By Georgia Wells 

Twitter Inc. tapped a former close colleague of No. 2 executive Anthony Noto to be its new finance chief, a step toward filling a list of vacancies created at the social-messaging company over the past year.

Ned Segal will start as Twitter's chief financial officer in late August, the company said Tuesday. He comes most recently from financial-software producer Intuit Inc., where he was senior vice president of finance for the $2.5 billion division that delivers QuickBooks to customers. Before that he served as CFO of RPX Corp., a small San Francisco-based company that helps clients manage patent-related risks.

Prior to that, Mr. Segal spent nearly 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he worked closely with Mr. Noto, whom he will replace as CFO. Mr. Noto has held two jobs at Twitter since becoming its COO last November following the departure of longtime executive Adam Bain. Mr. Noto now will act solely as COO, the company said.

Bringing in a former colleague to fill a key role could help solidify Mr. Noto's influence. He has taken on increasing responsibility since joining Twitter three years ago, after stints including head of technology, media and telecom investment banking at Goldman and as CFO of the National Football League.

Twitter said its entire management team participated in the CFO search process, meeting with several candidates, and that Chief Executive Jack Dorsey made the final decision.

Mr. Segal "brings a principled, engaging and rigorous approach to the CFO role, with a track record of driving profitable growth," Mr. Dorsey said in a statement.

Twitter has struggled for years to translate its popularity into profit. For the first quarter of this year it reported declining revenue for the first time since its initial public offering in 2013, despite a series of turnaround measures announced after Mr. Dorsey, a co-founder, returned as CEO in late 2015.

More than a dozen executives and leaders have left Twitter in the past 12 months, including Chief Technologist Adam Messinger, Vice President of Product Josh McFarland and Vice President of Finance Celia Poon.

In May, Mr. Dorsey's co-founder, Biz Stone, said he was rejoining Twitter to focus on its culture and work on conveying elements of Twitter's culture externally.

Mr. Segal's annual salary will be $500,000, and he will receive about 795,000 shares of Twitter's stock, in addition to more shares if the company meets certain metrics, Twitter said in a filing.

Twitter's stock, which ended trading Tuesday up 3.1%, was flat after hours following the announcement.

The shares have gained ground this year, but remain at less than a third of their peak value shortly after their IPO.

Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 11, 2017 17:51 ET (21:51 GMT)

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