Twitter has named a former top Goldman Sachs tech investment banker to serve as the social-network company’s chief financial officer, the second major change to the ranks of top executives at the company in less than a month.
Anthony Noto, a former managing director for Goldman’s technology, media and telecom investment banking division, will replace current CFO Mike Gupta “within the next 30 days,” Twitter (TWTR) said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Noto also previously served as the CFO of the National Football League.
The hiring is notable for two key reasons. Noto worked at Goldman when the bank scored a coup by landing the lead role for Twitter’s initial public offering last year. That win was key for Goldman (GS) after it lost out to rival Morgan Stanley (MS) on similar roles in some other key, high-profile technology IPOs, including Facebook’s $16 billion sale in 2012. The appointment is also notable because Noto in May stepped down as a top tech banker at Goldman to join tech-focused hedge fund Coatue Management.
The quick job change happened so quickly for Noto that he didn’t even have time to update his LinkedIn profile, which still lists his latest job as a banker at Goldman.
Noto is succeeding Gupta, who first joined Twitter in late 2012 after spending time as an executive at Zynga and Yahoo. He previously served as a president in the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch. Gupta will assume the role of senior vice president, strategic investments, within the next month.
Meanwhile, Twitter disclosed Noto’s annual salary will be $250,000. He will also receive a one-time stock award of 1.5 million restricted stock units and also a one-time option grant to buy 500,000 Twitter shares, among other perks.
The CFO change at Twitter comes less than a month after Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani resigned from his post. Twitter has reported sharp advertising revenue growth but a troublesome slowdown in user activity. Average monthly active users totaled 255 million at the end of the first quarter, climbing just 5.8% on a sequential basis. Twitter had mostly reported double-digit gains for that key metric throughout much of 2011 and 2012.
