Anthony Noto has stepped down from his role as chief operating officer at Twitter to take on the chief executive role of a controversial fintech startup.
Digital lending startup SoFi confirmed it had hired Noto as its chief exec, saying he will begin the job on 1 March. The confirmation comes after it emerged yesterday he was considering taking on the role .
“I’m grateful to the SoFi board for this extraordinary opportunity to lead one of the most important new companies at the intersection of technology and finance,” said Noto.
“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” added Tom Hutton, the company's interim chief executive.
The company has been without a chief executive for several months after the role's previous incumbent, Mike Cagney, was ousted following allegations of sexual harassment.
Noto joined Twitter as finance chief from Goldman Sachs in 2014 after he worked on its IPO, but has had his share of awkward moments at the company.
In 2014 he publicly tweeted what looked like a Direct Message, which appeared to concern an acquisition by Twitter. Months later, his account was hacked, causing him to tweet a string of messages in decidedly un-COO-like language, such as "I can't stop laughing!" and "This pic of you is funny lol".
Twitter shares fell 3.6 per cent to $22.51 in pre-market trading.
Read more: Why taming the trolls is now a matter of urgency for Twitter and Facebook
Anthony Noto has stepped down from his role as chief operating officer at Twitter to take on the chief executive role of a controversial fintech startup.
Digital lending startup SoFi confirmed it had hired Noto as its chief exec, saying he will begin the job on 1 March. The confirmation comes after it emerged yesterday he was considering taking on the role .
“I’m grateful to the SoFi board for this extraordinary opportunity to lead one of the most important new companies at the intersection of technology and finance,” said Noto.
“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” added Tom Hutton, the company's interim chief executive.
The company has been without a chief executive for several months after the role's previous incumbent, Mike Cagney, was ousted following allegations of sexual harassment.
Noto joined Twitter as finance chief from Goldman Sachs in 2014 after he worked on its IPO, but has had his share of awkward moments at the company.
In 2014 he publicly tweeted what looked like a Direct Message, which appeared to concern an acquisition by Twitter. Months later, his account was hacked, causing him to tweet a string of messages in decidedly un-COO-like language, such as "I can't stop laughing!" and "This pic of you is funny lol".
Twitter shares fell 3.6 per cent to $22.51 in pre-market trading.
Read more: Why taming the trolls is now a matter of urgency for Twitter and Facebook