California, USA

Twitter is hiring a Goldman Sachs executive as its new chief financial officer, continuing a shake-up that has led to the departures of several executives in recent months.

The social media company said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it hired Anthony Noto, 46, to replace current CFO Mike Gupta, who steered Twitter through its initial public offering in 2013.

Gupta will stay on at Twitter, taking on the role of senior vice president for strategic investments.

Noto was previously a managing director in Goldman’s technology, media and telecom investment banking group, where he led Twitter’s IPO process. Before that, he served as CFO of the National Football League.

The CFO switch follows the resignation of Twitter’s chief operating officer, Ali Rowghani, earlier this month. Rowghani won’t be replaced because CEO Dick Costolo is seeking more direct involvement with the San Francisco company’s engineering and product teams. Christopher Fry, Twitter’s senior vice president of engineering resigned in late May. He was replaced by Alexander Roetter, who’d been Twitter’s vice president of engineering.

The executive shake-ups come as Twitter is facing pressure from investors to increase its user base and how much people use its service.

In the new role, Noto will earn an annual salary of US$250,000 and be granted a one-time stock award of 1.5 million shares vesting over four years. He’ll also get a grant to buy 500,000 additional shares.

Twitter shares rose US$1.23, or three per cent, to US$42.20 in afternoon trading. The stock has fallen about 34 per cent since the beginning of the year.