Twitter appoints Martha Lane Fox to board

Twitter has appointed UK internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox and Pepsi's chief financial officer Hugh Johnston as directors, as the messaging platform replaces long serving board members.

Omid Kordestani, Twitter's executive chairman, said Peter Currie, a Silicon Valley executive whose experience dates back to Netscape, and Peter Chernin, head of media and technology investment firm The Chernin Group, will step down from the board next month.

Twitter also said on Friday that it was awarding more restrictive stock units to Anthony Noto, the chief financial officer who joined from Goldman Sachs, as "compensation for taking on additional responsibilities".

If he stays with the company until 2019 and meets his targets, he could receive extra stock worth about $5.8 million (€5m) at today’s share price. This is on top of restricted stock units and non-qualified stock he was awarded when appointed, which would be worth about $34 million today.

Mr Kordestani tweeted he was "thrilled" to welcome Baroness Lane Fox and Mr Johnston. "The entire board is working to bring greater diversity to our ranks. Watch this space."

‘Best. Job. Ever.’

Baroness Lane Fox, an avid Twitter user with more than 190,000 followers, tweeted that it was the "Best. Job. Ever." The co-founder of Lastminute. com, the UK travel site that was one of the country's most high-profile start-ups in the last dotcom boom, is a peer in the House of Lords, chancellor for the Open University and until last year served on the board of UK retailer Marks and Spencer.

Mr Johnston, who does not frequently use the platform and has just more than 100 followers, was appointed vice-chairman of Pepsi last year, and has been chief financial officer since March 2010. He served on the board of AOL until it was sold to Verizon last year. He tweeted that he was joining the Twitter board "to strengthen its power and impact".

The new directors join Twitter as Jack Dorsey, the co-founder who returned as chief executive last summer, searches for ways to boost slowing user growth. He has launched several new products to try to make the platform easier to understand for new users and this week signed a deal with the NFL to show American football games live on Twitter, in a bid to lure a new audience to the site.

Mr Kordestani was appointed shortly after Mr Dorsey became chief executive on a permanent basis last October, joining Twitter from Google where he had been chief business officer. He is keen to address criticisms faced by many Silicon Valley companies that their boards are too white and too male. Baroness Lane Fox is the board's second woman member, after Marjorie Scardino, former chief executive of Pearson, joined in late 2013.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016