From a Lawyer in Their 30s to a Former Twitter Employee... Who Are the People Helping Musk Revamp Twitter?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, arrived at the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference held on the 4th in Manhattan, New York, USA, and is entering the building.
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, took over the social networking service (SNS) Twitter at the end of last month, and the first thing he did was to dismiss Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and other executives. By his side as the head of Twitter, Musk CEO was accompanied by close aides including Alex Spiro, a lawyer in his late 30s.

According to the Washington Post (WP) on the 6th (local time), these individuals are working with Musk CEO to restructure Twitter, including laying off half of the employees.

The report states that Musk CEO ousted Twitter's existing management and installed a small group of close aides responsible for assessing Twitter's current status and implementing his vision. This group includes Musk's personal lawyer Alex Spiro, tech investor and podcaster Jason Calacanis, Musk CEO's close associate and family wealth manager Jared Birchall, tech investor David Sacks, and former Twitter executive Sriram Krishnan.

WP reported that among them, the key figure is lawyer Spiro, who has emerged in recent years as Musk CEO's closest confidant, friend, and legal counsel. According to the report, just hours after dismissing the management, Musk CEO entrusted Spiro with oversight of Twitter's legal, marketing, trust, and safety teams responsible for election-related work.

Alex Spiro, personal lawyer of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

Spiro was also directly involved in the process on the 4th when Twitter laid off 3,700 employees, half of its total 7,500 staff. He coordinated and managed the proper legal notification of layoffs to affected employees scattered across various states and countries. WP noted that it is unclear whether Spiro will have a specific ongoing role at Twitter or if he joined temporarily only during the restructuring process.

Spiro is regarded as a person well-suited to Musk CEO's preference for loyal individuals with tireless work ethics as core aides. Having worked as a lawyer since 2008, he gained fame representing celebrities such as hip-hop artist Jay-Z, NFL player Aaron Hernandez, and tennis player Naomi Osaka. He met Musk CEO in 2019 during a defamation lawsuit. When Musk CEO signed a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter in April but later reversed his position in July to cancel it, leading to a lawsuit from Twitter, Spiro defended him again. Although he lost the case, Musk CEO's trust in him reportedly grew stronger.

Besides Spiro, Jason Calacanis, a longtime colleague and tech investor of Musk CEO, is said to have personally advised Musk on workforce reductions and Twitter's restructuring direction, calling the Twitter CEO role his "dream job." Jared Birchall, who has managed Musk CEO's family office since 2016 and previously worked as an asset manager at Morgan Stanley, helped finance the Twitter acquisition. He is also CEO of Neuralink, a company founded by Musk CEO, and a director at The Boring Company.

David Sacks, who worked with Musk CEO at PayPal in the early 2000s, is known as a successful tech investor and conservative media figure, and recently appeared in Twitter's guidebook with the official Twitter email and the title "Staff Software Engineer." Sriram Krishnan, who worked at Facebook and Snapchat before joining Twitter from 2017 to 2019, is involved in the restructuring but his exact role is unclear. He is the only former Twitter employee on Musk CEO's team and told WP that he is "helping temporarily."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.