As Twitter’s CEO search continues, the social media company has lost yet another executive.
Akash Garg, the San Francisco company’s senior director of engineering, growth, and international teams, announced on Tuesday that he’s leaving Twitter (TWTR) to join ride-hailing giant (and Coins2Day Unicorn List leader) Uber. There, he’ll lead the startup’s mobile and web engineering teams, he said.
1/ After an amazing 4+ years at @Twitter, I am saying goodbye to my friends and co-workers
— Akash Garg (@akashgarg) September 22, 2015
2/ I feel incredibly honored and humbled to have worked with such a talented group of people #ThankYouTwitter
— Akash Garg (@akashgarg) September 22, 2015
3/ I am excited to lead the mobile and web platform teams @Uber. Looking forward to this new adventure!
— Akash Garg (@akashgarg) September 22, 2015
Garg’s departure comes at a delicate time for Twitter, which has now been without a permanent CEO for more than 100 days, with end to the search in sight. (Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, currently Twitter’s interim CEO, is rumored to be the top candidate.) Garg is also not the first executive to depart in recent months—Twitter lost three product executives in July, for example.
For Uber, Garg’s hiring is quite timely in light of a recent report from the The Information that the company’s engineering department is more fragile than it may appear to customers. Uber’s engineering team has grown to some 1,200 members under the leadership of CTO Thuan Pham. Garg’s experience at Twitter, as well as at hi5 (where he was co-founder and CTO) and Bebo (where he was briefly CTO), serve Uber well. Garg also played a key role in sourcing and cementing Twitter’s acquisition of ZipDial, an Indian startup that helps businesses connect with consumers in emerging markets who may not have Internet access.
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