Tag: CEO

Parag Agrawal To Replace Jack Dorsey As Twitter CEO

FILE PHOTO: Immediate past Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

 

Parag Agrawal will take over as the new Twitter Chief Executive Officer (CEO) following Monday’s stepping down of co-founder Jack Dorsey from the position. 

“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said in a statement.

“My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep… It’s his time to lead,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey, who also is chief executive of payments company Square, came under pressure in 2020 from Elliott Management amid concerns he had spread himself too thin by running both companies.

Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders.

Ouster Averted 

Twitter in March 2020 made a deal with key investors to end an effort to oust the chief, creating a new committee on the board of directors to keep tabs on company leadership.

Like many Silicon Valley celebrities, from Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to Bill Gates or Michael Dell, Dorsey dropped out of college, never graduating from either of the universities he attended, one in his native Missouri and the other in New York.

Dorsey is credited with coming up with the idea for Twitter when eventual co-founder Evan Williams gave workers at blogging startup Odeo two weeks to work on fun new projects as a way to break up the daily routine.

He ran Twitter in 2007-2008 but returned as CEO after Dick Costolo resigned in June 2015.

Dorsey was pushed out of the chief chair his first time around, and at the time was said to have made a better engineer than boss, known to leave early for personal pursuits such as sewing or yoga classes.

Twitter’s incoming CEO Agrawal joined the company in 2011 and has served as chief technology officer since October 2017, where he was responsible for the network’s technical strategy.

Agrawal holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

Nasdaq briefly suspended trading of Twitter on Monday, citing “news pending,” but the share was up 4.5 percent following the announcement.

 

Zuckerberg, Dorsey To Appear Before US Congress On Tuesday

This combination of file photos created on October 1, 2020 shows Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (L) in Washington, DC on October 17, 2019, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in Washington, DC, on September 5, 2018. AFP

 

The top executives of Facebook and Twitter were set to appear before US lawmakers for the second time in less than a month for a fresh hearing on the hotly disputed role of social networks in US political debate.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey were scheduled to appear remotely at the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Both executives were testifying “voluntarily,” according to the panel.

Committee chair Senator Lindsey Graham called the session to address what he called “censorship and suppression of news articles” and the “handling of the 2020 election” by the platforms.

Graham said the panel would notably address the decision by both social platforms to limit circulation of New York Post articles which claimed to have exposed malfeasance by Democrat Joe Biden ahead of his election victory.

President Donald Trump and his allies have claimed the major social platforms have suppressed conservative voices, despite his own large following and prolific posting.

The session follows an October 28 hearing at a different Senate committee — which included Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai — on the legal immunity of online services for content posted by others on their platforms.

Some lawmakers last month complained that the platforms were becoming biased “arbiters” of content and unfairly suppressing conservative voices.

The large networks have been struggling with ways to filter out abusive content and misinformation while keeping their platforms open to all voices.

AFP

Gokada CEO Fahim Saleh Murdered In New York

gokada-saleh-fahim
Fahim Saleh, the late Gokada CEO. Photo: [email protected]

 

Fahim Saleh, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of ride-hailing company, Gokada is dead.

He was said to have been dismembered with his decapitated remains found in his apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, New York on Tuesday afternoon.

However, his dog, Laila, was found alive in the house at 265, East Houston Street near Suffolk Street.

The company confirmed his death in a series of tweets on its handle on Wednesday morning, describing the late Saleh as an inspirational leader.

“We are deeply saddened to inform you about the sudden and tragic loss of our founder and CEO, Fahim Saleh. Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us,” the tweet read.

“Our hearts go out to his friends, family and all those feeling the pain and heartbreak we are currently experiencing, here at Gokada.

“Fahim’s vision and belief in us will be with us forever, and we will miss him dearly. Thank you for understanding as we get through this.”

It added that further updates about his death will be revealed as events unfold.

“Forever in our hearts,” the company added.

 

Saleh’s headless and limbless torso was seen in his swanky Manhattan condo on Tuesday with an electric saw lying close to his body.

According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), contractor bags were found close to the torso but the cops did not open them to know if the body parts were inside.

Detectives were waiting for fingerprints and forensics tests on the body, the police said.

 

 

Nokia CEO Suri To Step Down In September

Nokia’s new President and CEO Pekka Lundmark (C) shakes hands with resigning President and CEO Rajeev Suri after a press conference at the Nokia headquarters in Espoo, Finland on March 2, 2020. Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva / AFP

 

Nokia’s chief executive officer Rajeev Suri will leave the telecom equipment provider in September and be replaced by the current head of Finnish energy group Fortum, Nokia announced on Monday.

Pekka Lundmark will take over on September 1, Nokia said.

Suri, who has been Nokia’s president and CEO since April 2014, had “indicated earlier to the board that he was considering stepping down from his role at some point in the future, provided a solid succession plan was in place,” the company said.

“After 25 years at Nokia, I have wanted to do something different,” Suri said.

Lundmark has also served as CEO of Konecranes, a global material-handling technology leader. Prior to that, from 1990-2000, he held various executive positions at Nokia, including vice president of strategy and business development at Nokia Networks.

Lundmark also has “extensive experience in China,” he told a press conference on Monday — a market which Nokia last year announced it was backing away from in the light of growing support there for local vendors.

Nokia’s share price rose by four percent on the Helsinki stock exchange to 3.6 euros shortly after opening at 0800 GMT, before falling back somewhat.

The group has remade itself as a 5G network systems company since its mobile phone business was wiped out by Apple and Samsung.

Suri is behind Nokia’s recent transformation, including its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent and the creation of a standalone software business, and the return of the Nokia brand to mobile phones.

He also oversaw the launch of ‘internet of things’ products designed to revolutionise specific sectors, such as soil sensors for agriculture or tracking systems for logistics firms.

However, Nokia’s attempts to break into the 5G equipment market have faltered in the face of fierce competition from Huawei and Ericsson.

Last year Nokia downgraded its 2020 earnings forecast, while chief executive Suri played down the firm’s delays in delivering some equipment orders.

Nokia went on to beat expectations in a “challenging” 2019 and last month posted its first full-year net profit since 2015 of 7.0 million euros, and an operating profit of 2.0 billion euros.

At Monday’s press conference, Suri defended his record, saying that when he took over as CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks in 2009, the year’s operating profit was 28 million euros.

“I’m not entirely satisfied with last year but we still had 2 billion compared to that 28 million,” he said.

AFP

Unilever Boss Steps Down After Headquarters Move To Fiasco

File Photo Of Unilever Logo

Unilever chief Paul Polman is “retiring” from the consumer giant, the firm said on Thursday, a month after it was forced to ditch a controversial post-Brexit plan to move its headquarters from London to the Netherlands.

The Anglo-Dutch group, the maker of iconic brands like Marmite and Dove soap, will be headed from January by Alan Jope, the current chief of its huge beauty and personal care department.

“Unilever today announced that CEO Paul Polman has decided to retire from the company,” the company said in a statement, adding that he had been in the post for 10 years.

Polman, 62, tweeted that he had decided to “step down from my role as CEO”, adding: “It’s been a great honor to lead this team for the past 10 years and together build a sustainable business that has made a difference to millions of lives.”

“I have no doubts that I will be leaving the company in excellent hands. Under Alan’s leadership, Unilever is well-placed to prosper long into the future.”

Neither Unilever nor Polman made any mention of the headquarters plan, but his position had been in doubt since it fell through on October 5.

Unilever had faced mounting opposition from key shareholders, including Aviva Investors, Royal London, Columbia Threadneedle, Legal & General Investment Management, Lindsell Train, M&G Investments and Brewin Dolphin.

Many were angry that the plan would have ended Unilever’s dual listing on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, meaning that many would have had to sell shares in Britain.

The group had originally unveiled the planned switch in March in a symbolic decision that was largely interpreted by analysts as a blow to post-Brexit Britain.

It also followed a failed hostile bid by US rival Kraft Heinz last year, which analysts said played a key role in Unilever’s decision as the Netherlands has stronger rules to protect companies against takeovers.

Jope, who currently leads the firm’s largest division, said it would be a “huge privilege to lead Unilever”.

Polman is due to retire as CEO on December 31 but will stay at the company for six months working on the transition with Jope, the firm said.

AFP

Facebook: I Have No Plan To Resign Says Zuckerberg

 In this file photo taken on May 24, 2018 Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his speech during the VivaTech (Viva Technology) trade fair in Paris. Embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on November 20, 2018, he has no plans to resign, sounding defiant after a rough year for the social platform. GERARD JULIEN / AFP

 

Embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday he has no plans to resign, sounding defiant after a rough year for the social platform.

“That’s not the plan,” Zuckerberg told CNN Business when asked if he would consider stepping down as chairman.

He also defended Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who has drawn criticism over her handling of the social media giant’s recent crises.

“Sheryl is a really important part of this company and is leading a lot of the efforts for a lot of the biggest issues we have,” said Zuckerberg.

“She’s been an important partner to me for 10 years. I’m really proud of the work we’ve done together and I hope that we work together for decades more to come.”

Facebook has stumbled from one mess to another this year as it grappled with continuing fallout from Russia’s use of the platform to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which user data was harnessed in a bid to help candidate Donald Trump, and a huge security breach involving millions of accounts.

Most recently, an investigative piece published last week by The New York Times said Facebook misled the public about what it knew about Russia’s election meddling and used a PR firm to spread negative stories about other Silicon Valley companies and thus deflect anger away from itself.

“It is not clear to me at all that the report is right,” Zuckerberg said of the Times article.

“A lot of the things that were in that report, we talked to the reporters ahead of time and told them that from everything that we’d seen, that wasn’t true and they chose to print it anyway.”

Zuckerberg also defended his company against the broader wave of flak it has taken this year.

“A lot of the criticism around the biggest issues has been fair, but I do think that if we are going to be real, there is this bigger picture as well, which is that we have a different world view than some of the folks who are covering us,” he said.

“There are big issues, and I’m not trying to say that there aren’t… But I do think that sometimes, you can get the flavor from some of the coverage that’s all there is, and I don’t think that that’s right either.”

AFP

Former CEO Bank Of Cyprus Jailed For Market Manipulation

A Cypriot court on Friday jailed a former CEO of Bank of Cyprus after he was found guilty of market manipulation by deceiving shareholders in the lead-up to a banking system meltdown in 2013.

Andreas Eliades was found guilty in December of deceiving shareholders on the actual capital shortfall of BoC, the Mediterranean island’s biggest bank, at an annual general meeting in June 2012.

The case is the first in a state probe into the causes of the crash, which left several top Cypriot banks insolvent and forced it to seek an unprecedented international bailout.

The Nicosia criminal court found that Eliades had “knowingly misled” shareholders, who had the right to be properly informed.

“At the time he did not want to give the true picture,” their verdict read.

More serious charges of collusion and concealing data were dropped during the trial, and four other former senior officials were acquitted.

Bank of Cyprus was fined 120,000 euros for failing to take the necessary action to give a clear picture of the bank’s finances which could have affected its share price.

Cyprus is recovering from the financial crisis which forced it to negotiate a harsh bailout with international creditors in 2013.

In March 2013, Cyprus obtained a 10 billion euro loan from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to bail out its troubled economy and oversized banking system.

Under the terms of the deal, the government had to close the island’s second-largest bank, Laiki, and impose a 47.5-percent haircut on BoC deposits above 100,000 euros.

According to data from the IMF and the country’s central bank, a total of 8 billion euros was wiped out as part of the bailout agreed in 2013.

AFP

Nollywood Rules 2017 AMAA Nominations

The Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood, once again dominated the African movie stage as it received the highest numbers of nomination for the 2017 installment of the Africa Movie Academy Awards.

In the general competitive categories, Nollywood earned 43 nods from a total of 136 beating its closest rival the South-African movie industry by more than fifteen nominations.

Nigerian films also recorded a surprising three nominations from four in the Best Animation category which had never been a strong genre within the Nigerian movie circle. The animations include Abiola Tayo-Afolabi’s ‘Gyrow’ about malaria.

READ ALSO: Full List Of 2017 AMAA Nominees

Izu Ojukwu’s ‘76’, Kunle Afolayan’s ‘CEO’, Steve Goukas’ ‘93 Days’ and Curtis Graham’s ‘Oloibiri’ earned multiple nominations in various categories including in technical and acting classes.

Also, Nollywood provides two contenders for the coveted award for Best Film in Izu Ojukwu’s ‘76’ and ’93 Days’ about the dark days when Nigeria battled the Ebola disease virus in 2014.

Multiple Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo goes head-to-head with Somkele Idhalama from ’93 Days’, Taiwo Ajai Lycet from ‘Oloibiri’, Theresa Edem from ‘Ayamma’ for the Best Supporting Actress prize for her role as the enigmatic Dr Zimmerman in kunle afolayan’s ‘CEO’.

Nollywood, despite all its critical commendations and international recognition even at the world stage when it headlined a segment of the Toronto International Film Festival, failed to provide a worthy candidate in the cinematography category.

Shaibu Husseini, a member of the AMAA jury, explained that the category considered a combination of camera works and lighting to determine who deserved a nomination.

“For us cinematography is beyond drone shots,” Husseini said in a telephone conversation with Entertainment News on Channels Television.

“We found out that some of the movies didn’t do well when you consider camera and lighting as a unit. Some of them to many static shots, while the ones with beautiful camera movement lacked quality lighting”.

5th Africa CEO Forum To Kickoff March 20 In Geneva

5th Africa CEO Forum To Kickoff March 20 In GenevaHaving cemented its status as the foremost business personalities meeting dedicated to the development of the African private sector, the Africa CEO Forum is set to kick off its 5th edition, themed: “re-thinking Africa’s business model”.

The 2017 edition, set to take place in Geneva, would focus on how to succeed in this new economic cycle on the continent.

Slated to hold between March 20 and 21, the programme would bring together more than 1000 personalities, key decision makers in industry, finance and politics from the African continent and around the globe.

The Africa CEO forum 2017 would open the debate with the economic boom of the 2000s, the context of economic growth in Africa and the critical decisions that must be taken to reach rapid and sustainable growth.

Other themes to be discussed include: Unleashing innovation and the entrepreneurial potential of youth and women, making Africa more attractive for international investors, turning African stock exchanges into competitive powerhouses and creating the next generation of African exporters.

Find out more about the programme

The forum would also offer 20 sessions for debate and reflection, allowing participants to hit strategic topics for driving African corporate growth including: digital transformation, fintech, agri-business, private equity, emerging African champions, electricity and innovation.

Some of the African and international personalities slated to take part in the discussion and debate include:

President, African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, CEO Unilever, Paul Polman, President, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Mo Ibrahim, CEO, OTMT Investments, Naguib Sawiris, Chairperson, MTN, Phuthuma Nhleko, Co-Founder and Group Executive Director, Sahara Group, Tonye Cole, CEO, United Capital, Oluwatoyin Sanni, Chairperson, Firstbank, Ibukun Awosika, CEO, Mohammed Enterprises, Mohammed Dewji, CEO, Africa and Middle East, Orange, Bruno Mettling, CEO, MSC, Diego Aponte, CEO, Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah, CEO, Rougier, Marie-Yvonne Charlemagne, CEO, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Sola David-Borha, CEO, Uchumi Supermarkets, Julius Kipng’etich, CEO, Cevital, Issad Rebrab, CEO, Casablanca Finance City Authority, Saïd Ibrahimi, CEO, NSIA, Jean Kacou Diagou.

For more information, visit the African CEO Forum website.

How To Become A Tech Entrepreneur

tech entrepreneurA Tech Entrepreneur will argue that there is no entrepreneurship without technology.

The fact is they both work together, especially today where technology has levelled the playing field in such a way that you can start a business in your home or office.

However, you have to learn some basic element or skill to be able to maximize this opportunity.

The CEO, Precise Financial Systems, Yele Okeremi, joins us on Tech Trends to discuss how entrepreneurs can leverage on the present technology to scale their businesses.

Statistics shows that half of all start-ups fail within their first five years.

In a study carried out by small Business Administration, only 44% of firms formed in 1998 were still around only four years later.

Experts Call For Improved Mechanisation In Agriculture

agriculture sectorThere has been a growing debate over the proposed plan by the Ministry of Agriculture to import genetically modified seedlings or crops.

Two Agricultural Experts, Mr. Africanfarmer Mogaji and an Agricultural Exporter and the CEO, Frijay Consult, Mr. Alfred Uwheraka, are of the opinion that Nigeria must put all mechanisms in place before adopting the GM technology.

According to them, although the challenges of climate change has necessitated the need for genetically modified seedlings, it’s important to address some of the challenges that could hinder its efficacy.

They identified some of the challenges which include low level of irrigation in some parts of the country, low level of awareness among farmers, and high cost of these seedlings.

They, however, advised that the importation of these seedlings should be well monitored and evaluated to avoid imitation.

Business Morning: Expectations As Emefiele Resumes As CBN Governor

Business Morning Ayo TeribaAs the new CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, resumes work on Tuesday June 3, he is expected to strike a balance between monetary tightening and employment.

The CEO, Economic Associates, Dr. Ayo Teriba, who was our guest on our business programme, Business Morning wants the CBN to stop focusing on financial variables and financial markets.

According to him, CBN should broaden its view to focus on the economy. They should focus on real economic growth, spending growth and household spending consumption

He, however, advised that before tightening liquidity, the CBN should make sure that its stance does not slow employment.

He insists that a situation where the CBN just focuses on inflation and exchange rate when unemployment level has doubled, Nigeria is the loser for it.