Jeff Weiner the CEO of LinkedIn, announced that he’ll be stepping down and take on a new role focusing on economic opportunity. Jeff Weiner will be replaced by Ryan Roslansky, who has been company’s Senior Vice President of Product.
Weiner has been one of the most valuable assets for LinkedIn and it’s development, as outlined by LinkedIn:
“Jeff joined LinkedIn in December 2008, and under his leadership, we’ve grown from 338 to more than 16,000 employees in over 30 offices around the world, our membership base has increased from 33 million to nearly 675 million members, and our revenue has increased from $78 million to more than $7.5 billion in the trailing twelve months.“
Since Weiner won’t be leaving LinkedIn, he’ll be taking on a new role as LinkedIn’s Executive Chairman, that’ll allow him to focus on areas of his interest i.e. creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.
Weiner mentioned about his mission in one of the interviews with Wired’s Nicholas Thompson last November, where he outlined the economic inequality as a challenge and how LinkedIn might be able to work on that.
The key part of connecting with relevant opportunity is who’s on the other side, Weiner noted. There are a lot of people who take some level of advantage from being connected to the right professional & educational connections.
“It turns out, where you grow up, where you go to school and where you work heavily influence the strength of your network. And more specifically, if you grow up in a high-income neighborhood, you are three times more likely to have a strong network. If you go to a top school or university, you are two times then again likely to have a strong network. If you work at a top company, you are two times again likely to have a strong network. If you enjoy all three of those advantages, you are 12 times more likely to have a strong network.“
LinkedIn has been working on these impacts. Last September LinkedIn introduced ‘One Plus Pledge’ initiative that asks professionals to share their knowledge, time and connections with members who are outside of their network. LinkedIn’s also wants to ensure that all members are aware of relevant job listings, on equal footing, while Weiner will be focusing on connecting people with mentors in related circles of the jobs they have been looking for, just to close the gap.
Coming to the main platform, Roslansky has been on the platform for a decade, and doesn’t think any significant changes need to be done in direction for the company. Roslansky has been a part of all of the major initiatives of LinkedIn like the ‘INfluencer’ program, advertising tools, content eco-system and publishing platform.
This major role change at LinkedIn will take effect from June 1st, 2020.
