Twitter CMO Leslie Berland is also taking over human resources as the new ‘Head of People’
Plus, Twitter hired another HR exec from American Express, where Berland used to work. — Twitter has found someone to take over its top human resources role that's been empty for almost six months …
Context & Ripple Effects
Leslie Berland joined Twitter as CMO in January 2016, confirmed straight out of American Express, and the company has kept drawing on her former employer since. Now, with the top human resources seat empty for almost six months, Twitter is handing that job to Berland too — and importing yet another HR executive from Amex to work under her.
The vacancy traces directly to an early-2017 exodus: chief HR officer Renee Atwood departed, and head of diversity Jeffrey Siminoff followed her out weeks later, leaving Twitter without its two senior people-leadership figures at once. Filling the gap internally with the CMO, rather than through an external search, is the notable move.
First-order effects
- Berland now holds both the CMO and Head of People titles at Twitter, ending the near-six-month HR vacancy with an internal dual-hat rather than a dedicated hire.
- The new reporting structure lands on a people team that just lost its chief HR officer and its head of diversity in quick succession, so Berland inherits rebuilding the function, not just running it.
Second-order effects
- American Express solidifies as Twitter's cross-functional talent pipeline — marketing first, now HR — meaning Twitter's executive bench increasingly reflects one company's culture and network.
- Rivals and recruiters watching Twitter's org chart will read the dual-hat as a signal that the people-leadership role is being defined around brand and communications skills, changing what candidates they pitch for similar seats elsewhere.
Third-order effects
- Dual-hatting a CMO as Head of People looks transitional, and the later record supports that: Twitter went on to appoint a dedicated VP of People Experience and D&I lead in 2019 ([[a:939546]]) and still lost a ten-year HR business partner by 2023 ([[a:832909]]), suggesting consolidated people-leadership recurs during churn but gets re-split once stable.
- If the pattern generalizes, 'Head of People' roles at consumer platforms drift toward employer-brand mandates owned by marketing-trained executives — a structural blur between how a company sells itself to users and to employees.
The trend: Consumer internet companies are increasingly folding people leadership into brand leadership, turning to proven marketing executives — often recycled from a single trusted source — whenever executive churn opens an HR seat.