Jeff Weiner is stepping down as chief executive officer (CEO) of professional networking service LinkedIn after more than a decade at the helm.
LinkedIn made the announcement on its platform that its CEO Jeff Weiner will be stepping down from the position and will be replaced by Senior Vice President of Product Ryan Roslansky on June 1, 2020.
Roslansky will be tasked with global product strategy and will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as Weiner currently does. He said: "I didn’t take this role to change the company. I took it because I couldn’t believe more in what we’re doing."
In the statement, the company said: "These changes will enable LinkedIn to continue to focus on realizing our vision and mission of connecting the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful."
Meanwhile, Weiner will become LinkedIn's executive chairman following the transition. LinkedIn said that in the new role, he will support the leadership team and create "economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."
Under Weiner's leadership, LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft for $26 billion in 2016. In an all-cash deal, the tech giant paid $196 per share for the company. This move combined Microsoft's dominance in the global market for computer systems and LinkedIn's foothold as the main social network for professionals.
The company currently employs 16,000 people and serves almost 675 million members. He also oversaw the company's initial public offering (IPO) in 2011 and generated $7.5 billion revenue in 2019.
In an interview with Wired, Weiner expressed that he's leaving the position because it feels like the "right time."
He said: "I had always thought to myself that I'd be in the role for as long as I was happy, and then I realized I love this place so much, and our sense of purpose, our vision, has become so inextricably linked with my own sense of purpose."
