On His Way Out, Twitter’s Dick Costolo Tries to Shape His Legacy
Richard "Dick" Costolo, departing chief executive officer of Twitter, speaks at the 2015 Bloomberg Technology Conference in San Francisco on June 16. Costolo says that while he's confident in the current direction of the company, he also is willing to let the next CEO make the changes the person wants to make.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Dick CostoloAs Dick Costolo stepped away from his role as chief executive officer of Twitter, he knew what he wanted his legacy to be—and it's not related to the company's performance on the public market. In his first day out of a job, Costolo has an opinion piece in the Guardian that frames his outlook on challenges companies face in today's geopolitical landscape, where all communication is open. The editorial comes on the heels of an interview he did with the U.K. newspaper published on June 30, his last day as CEO, which touched on some of the same issues.
In the op-ed, Costolo frames himself as the person who helped Twitter evolve from a Silicon Valley toy for discussing trivial life updates about “drinking a glass of wine in Napa Valley” into a global force for political discourse and ideas. As Twitter matured, it “started to represent the democratic ideal of access for all,” Costolo wrote. “It means that a country can hold its government to account and that it’s harder to cover up the true version of events.”