Rumors have been brewing for weeks, but today The New York Times confirmed that original Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has returned to lead product development at the company. Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone were the founding force behind Twitter back in 2006, and since then the site’s experienced its fair share of staff changes. Dorsey went on to become the CEO of Square before returning to Twitter, Stone made his way to AOL – and now Williams will be scaling back his role once again at Twitter.
In 2010, then-CEO Williams decided to vacate his spot to dedicate himself to “product strategy.” COO Dick Costolo stepped up to the position and as held it since. The relationship between Williams and Costolo has reportedly been less than friendly, however. TechCrunch reports that Williams has been pulling away from the company entirely. “Ev decided a couple months ago to be less involved day to day at Twitter. He continues to have a close relationship with the company providing strategic advice and, of course, he remains an active board member,” TechCrunch’s source claims. A company statement says that Williams will remain on the board.
Dorsey remains committed to Square, but will be returning his talents to Twitter in the form of an executive chairman title. Dorsey is widely known originating the entire idea of Twitter, and has been praised as something of a UI expert. It’s a promising move for Twitter, as it has experienced massive user growth and will be looking to launch a profit scheme in the near future.
