Twitter Ireland boss Stephen McIntyre is stepping down from his role as managing director at the social network to join venture capital firm Frontline Ventures. Former Storyful chief executive Mark Little is to take over as head of Twitter's Irish subsidiary on July 1st.
Mr McIntyre revealed the news of his departure this morning in a blog post. He will make the move across the street to become a venture partner in Frontline, which is an early-stage VC firm.
"After four and a half of the best years of my professional life, I have made the very tough decision to leave Twitter," he said. "I've had a tremendous run at Google and Twitter but after a decade at US multinationals I'm ready for something new. And, having run businesses very large and very small, I enjoy the building phase most of all."
Frontline has made 22 investments in the UK and Ireland in the past three years, including smart kitchen scale maker drop, online shopping firm Pointy and fintech firm CurrencyFair.
“I see a lot of potential in that portfolio.” Mr McIntyre said. “I hope my high-growth operating experience will be of benefit to some of these companies as they scale.”
Mr McIntyre has led Twitter Ireland for the past four and half years, following the setting up of its Irish office in late 2011. He had previously worked for tech giant Google in Dublin; after a decade of working abroad, he took a job as head of online sales and operations with Google in 2005, returning to Dublin for the new position.
“I continue to believe in the importance of the Twitter service, which is more relevant culturally than it has ever been. I vividly recall walking into a four-person office in early 2012: no people, no customers, just an IKEA couch and a vision to build Twitter’s EMEA headquarters,” he said. “We grew rapidly to over 200 people, 20 functions, and one of the most vibrant and senior offices at Twitter. I’m proud of what we’ve built in EMEA — not just our business, but our business culture — and the final part of my job is to ensure a smooth transition.”
Mr Little is currently vice president of media and partnerships for Twitter in Europe. He joined the firm in November last year, following his departure from social media news agency Storyful in June. He sold Storyful to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in December 2013 for €18 million.
Mr McIntyre described his successor as “a Twitter evangelist through and through”, noting his leadership experience at Storyful made him an ideal candidate to head up the Dublin office.
“The styrofoam blue bird is now yours,” he said.
Twitter was established in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. It has experienced some turmoil in recent months, with the departure of Dick Costolo as chief executive, and his eventual replacement by Mr Dorsey.
