Less than 6 months after joining, Twitter VP of communications Natalie Kerris is leaving the company
Natalie Kerris, who joined Twitter as its VP of communications in February, is leaving the company, BuzzFeed News has learned. Leslie Berland, Twitter's chief marketing officer …
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter went out and hired for credibility when it courted Apple veteran Natalie Kerris for its top communications job in January — a signal the company wanted a steadier hand on its narrative. Less than six months into the role, she is gone, making her the second senior communications-side departure of the year, after editorial director Karen Wickre left in March.
The exit matters because it fits an emerging pattern rather than standing alone: by January 2017, Greater China managing director Kathy Chen would also leave after just eight months, and CMO Leslie Berland — named in this report as the executive connected to the transition — would later absorb HR as well. Short tenures in exactly the roles responsible for how Twitter tells its own story compound the company's perception problem.
First-order effects
- Leslie Berland loses a VP of communications she helped bring in and must either backfill the role or absorb the function herself while already running marketing.
- Reporters and partners dealing with Twitter face another change in their main comms contact, mid-year, with no announced successor.
Second-order effects
- A revolving door at the top makes the next senior hire harder: candidates weigh whether the communications seat is stable enough to be worth leaving Apple or comparable posts for.
- Each quick exit feeds the news cycle Twitter's communications team exists to manage, handing critics a ready-made storyline about internal turmoil.
Third-order effects
- If the sub-six-to-eight-month tenure pattern holds across Kerris, Wickre, and Chen, it points to structural instability in Twitter's executive bench during this period — leadership churn becoming itself part of the company's public identity.
The trend: Twitter's 2016–2017 stretch shows executive churn concentrating in narrative-shaping roles — communications, editorial, regional leadership — as the company struggles to stabilize its story.