Sources say LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is stepping down after 11 years at the helm of the popular professional social-networking firm and will be replaced by Ryan Rolansky, a senior vice-president in charge of product, Business Insider reported.
He will be replaced in June by Roslansky, who has been at LinkedIn since before Microsoft acquired it for US$26 billion in 2016, the report said.
“The last eleven years have been the greatest professional experience of my life and none of it would have been possible without you, our members,” Weiner said in an blog post, adding, “Despite the scale and impact we’ve achieved thus far, it still feels like in many respects we’re just getting started.”
Weiner said he had been discussing his plan to step down with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella since last summer. Weiner will step into a new role as LinkedIn’s executive chairman, the report said.
“Despite now reaching over 675 million members, employing over 16,000 people, and generating $7.5 billion of revenue, in many respects it feels like LinkedIn is just getting started,” Weiner said.
Weiner said Roslansky was his first hire after he joined LinkedIn in 2008 and played a key role in building LinkedIn’s marketing products, its “influencer” program, and its publishing platform, the report said.
He also helped lead the acquisition of the online-education site Lynda and LinkedIn’s integration with Microsoft, the report said.
“Ryan has been a key architect in reshaping LinkedIn’s increasingly complex consumer and enterprise applications into a single, holistic, global ecosystem,” Weiner said.
LinkedIn was a network, but it wasn’t really social, when Reid Hoffman, the company’s founder, hired Weiner in 2008, Wired reported.
It was mainly just a job board. You created an account, buffed up your career history, connected your address book, and then forgot about it.
But gradually, largely through projects that Roslansky oversaw, it evolved into a platform with different communities. People post essays and updates. Recruiters scour the résumé pile. Marketers post their ads. It’s a must for anyone looking for a job.
Microsoft doesn’t offer many details about LinkedIn’s finances, but it’s growing steadily.
According to the company’s most recent financial report, LinkedIn’s revenues grew from US$1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 to US$2.1 billion in the last quarter of 2019, Wired reported. The generous way to put it is that revenue increased by 24%.
The less generous way to put it is that Microsoft still earns slightly more revenue off Bing. Weiner says simply, “The company has never been stronger.”
