Ryan Roslansky To Take Over As LinkedIn CEO

Ryan Roslansky, a senior vice president at LinkedIn, Microsoft-owned company, is taking over from Jeff Weiner on June 1 and the two are seemingly focused on continuing the company’s work to limit bias among its users.

Weiner, who ranked on Forbes’ 2018 list of the World’s Most Reputable CEOs, will become LinkedIn’s executive chairman.

“It just felt like the right time. 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,” Weiner told WIRED.

Although Microsoft does not disclose much about LinkedIn’s balance sheet, WIRED said LinkedIn’s revenue grew 24% in 2019, from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion (though apparently search engine Bing brings in a touch more revenue).

Roslansky told WIRED he didn’t accept the CEO job to “change the company,” but “because I couldn’t believe more” in LinkedIn.

As executive chairman, Weiner plans to focus on preventing “network bias” on LinkedIn, a term that refers to people hiring and interacting with others who have similar backgrounds and educations.

https://twitter.com/jeffweiner/status/1225094844965478402

“The opportunity for me to continue to work with [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella] and the Microsoft leadership team in pursuit of helping billions of people gain access to economic opportunity adds an extremely exciting dimension to my next play,” wrote Weiner in a Wednesday LinkedIn post.

According to Weiner, LinkedIn has 675 million users

What to watch for:

How LinkedIn operates under Roslansky. According to WIRED, he took the initiative in LinkedIn’s decision to disallow political ads from the platform. And, as part of the company’s efforts to combat biases, engineers are required to check how algorithmic changes could benefit⁠—or harm⁠—different users.

After becoming CEO in mid-2009, Weiner oversaw a period of growth and transformation at LinkedIn. The company went public in 2011 at a $4 billion valuation, acquired online learning platform Lynda for $1.5 billion in 2015, before LinkedIn was bought by Microsoft the following year in a $27 billion deal. Before LinkedIn, Weiner was an executive in residence at venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock, an executive vice president of Yahoo’s network division, and the vice president of Warner Bros. Studio’s online division. He sits on the board of directors at multiple organizations, including Intuit, DonorsChoose and the Boys & Girls Clubs.