Behnam Rezaei, One of Twitter’s Last Remaining Pre-Musk Leaders, Quits

Behnam Rezaei, Twitter’s head of product and engineering, resigned Tuesday, Rezaei confirmed to TheWrap.

The longtime lead on the social media platform shared the news publicly shortly after, tweeting, “Yesterday was my last day at Twitter. It has been an absolute honor working with so many amazing people in the last 5.5 years. It was wilder than I could have ever imagined with so many stories and unforgettable moments.”

Read his full comments in the Twitter thread below.

Rezaei, who led the company’s global product engineering across both revenue and consumer sectors, was one of small quantity of leaders not appointed by Elon Musk remaining at the company before his departure.

He wrote later in his thread that he would often be texting with the embattled Musk over “product ideas or bugs” as late as 3 a.m. He also thanked the CEO for showing him up close the “framework to scale the efficiency of a startup to a midsize company to achieve the unachievable.”

“I joined Twitter for People and Product, and it never ceased to amaze me,” he wrote. “While the product looks simple, enabling healthy public conversation, I would argue it is one of those mission impossibles of our time but one worth solving.”

Rezaei’s exit marks another turbulent step for the social media platform since Musk’s takeover that was plummeted into chaos through mass layoffs and policy shifts — including the end of Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy and the reconfiguring of the blue check verification process.

“Hope you’re having a great day 1 2023! One thing’s for sure, it won’t be boring,” Musk warned on New Year’s Day.

Late Tuesday, Platformer’s Casey Newton reported that Twitter’s head of human resources Katie Marcotte, who is a 10-year veteran at the company, is also departing. Platformer first reported the news of Rezaei’s resignation Tuesday.

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Prior to becoming the product engineering head, Rezaei served as Twitter’s senior director of engineering where he led projects related to growth and core product.

Rezaei ended his thread by announcing he intends to take time off to focus on fatherhood.

“My kudos to all the amazing people currently at Twitter. Your hard work, brilliance and the heart you bring to work every day to push the mission forward are the most unappreciated stories of the year,” he said. “Be good, do good work, and support each other. I will be rooting for you.”

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