After raising the wrath of its own social network back in October over the lack of female representation on its board, Twitter has finally appointed its first female board member: former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino.
Scardino’s experience at the helm of Pearson – whose properties include The Financial Times, Penguin, Random House and The Economist – could prove invaluable to Twitter as she would have connections with major advertisers and publishers around the world.
Twitter describes itself as a media company, rather than a social networking or technology business.
Twitter successfully floated on the New York Stock Exchange last month, valuing the seven year-old company at US$31bn.
However, in the run-up to the company’s IPO, a controversy emerged over the fact the board of Twitter was an all-male affair.
In October, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo made a joke about Twitter needing to expand its governing body beyond “three Peters and a Dick”, a reference to the then-make-up of four members of its eight-strong all-white, all-male board.
Costolo was referring to the inner circle on the board that encompasses Costolo; investor Peter Currie, also CFO at former Netscape; former News Corp COO Peter Chernin; plus the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital.
With a publishing doyen of Scardino’s calibre now on board, Costolo’s ambition of Twitter being taken seriously as a media rather than a tech company may finally be realised.
Twitter hatches image via Shutterstock
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