It's Time for My Next Play and LinkedIn's New CEO

Earlier today, I sent the following email to our employees at LinkedIn announcing that on June 1, 2020, I'll begin my next play as LinkedIn's Executive Chairman and Ryan Roslansky will become our next CEO.

The last eleven years have been the greatest professional experience of my life and none of it would have been possible without you, our members. Thank you for everything you've done to help manifest our vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Despite the scale and impact we've achieved thus far, it still feels like in many respects we're just getting started. I can't wait to see where our team and this community take it from here.

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When you’re fortunate enough to work at the right company, with the right people, at the right time, a job can become something much greater than just a job. The company’s mission and vision become indistinguishable from your own true north, helping you find even greater clarity and sense of purpose. The realization of the company’s objectives transcends the creation of shareholder value, and positively impacts the world at a scale beyond your wildest imagination. And the colleagues you work with become more than just co-workers – through their tireless dedication and inspiration, and the values and unique experiences you share, they become teammates, teachers, and like family. Such has been my experience as the CEO of LinkedIn over the last 11 years. This job has been the greatest, most fulfilling and transformational professional experience of my life. Simply put, it’s been a dream job.

 Last summer, I began talking with Satya about transitioning from my current dream job to my next one and helping him decide on my successor as CEO. Today, I am excited to announce that effective June 1, 2020, I will be stepping into the role of Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and Ryan Roslansky, currently our global head of product, will become LinkedIn’s next CEO. Ryan will report directly to Satya and serve as a member of his senior leadership team, in the same way I have over the last three years.

While I’ve been thinking about the timing of this transition for some time, over the last year or so, several factors converged that led me to conclude now is the right time to make this change. For starters, our business has never been better, our culture has never been stronger, and our future has never been clearer. Additionally, my passion for initiatives beyond my day-to-day role as CEO has continued to grow. Most importantly, after working with Ryan for nearly two decades, spanning two companies and countless roles, it’s become clear to me that going forward, his vision, drive and passion are exactly what the role requires.

Ryan was the first hire I made after joining LinkedIn in December 2008. He has been essential to the company’s success ever since: helping to build our Marketing Solutions business, developing LinkedIn’s Influencer program and publishing platform, overseeing the home page and Feed, running all of our consumer products, championing the acquisition of Lynda.com, and co-developing our prioritization framework for the Microsoft integration. Most recently, as our global head of product, Ryan has been a key architect in reshaping LinkedIn’s increasingly complex consumer and enterprise applications into a single, holistic, global ecosystem. In doing so, he has helped lead one of the best performing stretches in the company’s history.

Despite now reaching over 675M members, employing over 16,000 people, and generating $7.5B of revenue, in many respects it feels like LinkedIn is just getting started. That seems especially true given the impending impact of technology on the global workforce and the critical role LinkedIn will play in helping people effectively navigate the global economy in the 21st century. In addition to being an inspiring leader and one of the most talented product people I’ve worked with, Ryan is a true systems thinker – exactly what a company of our scope and scale will require to realize LinkedIn’s extraordinary potential.

I'm also excited to announce that Ryan has selected Tomer Cohen, an inspiring leader who has shaped our product ecosystem strategy and had a material impact on our business, to be our new head of Product. Tomer was a founding member of our mobile efforts and would later oversee a material evolution in the scope and scale of our Feed. Most recently, Tomer has led our Marketing Solutions product during a time of record revenue as it continues to be our fastest growing business at scale. Tomer exemplifies the best of collaboration at LinkedIn by working without boundaries across the organization and has an unwavering focus on building products that drive significant value for members and customers. I couldn’t be more confident in the future of our Product team and strategy under his leadership.

As for my role going forward, Ryan and I discussed the value of serving as Executive Chairman as Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, did for me. This is especially meaningful given there is no individual who has had more influence on my tenure as CEO than Reid. Despite his various interests outside of the company, LinkedIn has always been his top priority. Whether as a representative of LinkedIn at the highest levels, product visionary, business strategist, mentor, or advisor, his contributions have been invaluable, and LinkedIn obviously wouldn’t be where it is today without him. As LinkedIn’s new Executive Chairman, I hope to serve in much the same way.

 I’ll also have the opportunity to do even more of what I already love doing: manifesting LinkedIn’s vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce and closing the Network Gap; working on The Compassion Project to help ensure that compassion is taught and practiced in every primary school in the U.S.; investing and coaching, and sharing what I’ve learned over 27+ years in business with the next generation of leadership talent.

When I first shared this idea with Satya, he couldn’t have been more supportive and excited about both Ryan leading LinkedIn into the future and my transition to the Executive Chairman role. That came as no surprise given our working relationship over the last three years. Since the acquisition, Satya’s commitment to our shared vision for the integration and his unconditional support have been instrumental in our success. The opportunity for me to continue to work with Satya 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.

Over the next several months, I’ll continue to serve in my current role. Effective June 1, 2020, Ryan will officially become LinkedIn’s new CEO, leading one of the strongest executive teams I’ve had the privilege to work with, and Tomer will join that team as our new head of Product. At that point, I’ll move into my new LinkedIn office – same person, same company, new dream job.

Please join me in congratulating Ryan and Tomer on their very well-deserved next plays.  

Jeff