Twitter adds Quip CEO and former Facebook CTO Bret Taylor to board

Twitter announced that it has appointed Facebook’s former chief technology officer and Quip chief executive Bret Taylor to its board. His term begins immediately and will expire at the annual shareholder meeting next year. As part of his service, the company will be providing cash and equity compensation.

The addition is notable in that this would be one of the first instances of Twitter bringing on board someone from a “rival,” in this case Facebook. Pundits have often remarked that there’s no love lost between the two. However, the addition of Taylor could help Twitter enhance its ability to reach new users.

Taylor’s resume in the social space is well-documented. His career started at Google where he was a creator of Google Maps and its developer API before branching off to be cofounder of social network Friendfeed, which Facebook acquired. He then spent three years as the CTO of Facebook, where he contributed to building out the infrastructure and making it stable for what would eventually support more than a billion monthly active users. He left in 2012 to launch Quip, a productivity app.

Taylor also serves on the board of security technology company Taser International.

His appointment means he’ll join other members like Benchmark Capital’s Peter Fenton, PepsiCo’s Hugh Johnston, Twitter cofounder and Obvious Corp’s Evan Williams, and others.

Excited to join @twitter's board. Twitter is one of the most important services in the world, and I'm thrilled to be able to work with @jack

— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 5, 2016

The makeup of Twitter’s board has certainly changed since company head Jack Dorsey took over — former CEO Dick Costolo stepped down from the board. Taylor’s involvement is perhaps another effort to shore up efforts to support Dorsey’s aim to market Twitter as a place for live events and conversations.

In a press release, Twitter’s executive chairman Omid Kordestani wrote: “Bret brings to our Board a great mind for consumer products and technologies that will be invaluable to the company as we execute our plans for 2016 and beyond. His skills also complement those of our other recent Board additions, who bring expertise in finance, media, and entrepreneurship.”

News!: @btaylor is joining the Twitter Board! Bret brings world class experience, insight, & thoughtfulness around building social services.

— jack (@jack) July 5, 2016