Twitter announced on June 2 that it had appointed its independent director Patrick Pichette, the former CFO of Google, as chairman of the board. He replaces Omid Kordestani, who will stay on as a director. Pichette, who served as Google's CFO from 2008 to 2015, is also a general partner at Canadian venture capital firm Inovia Capital.

Pichette's appointment comes three months after Twitter's largest investor, Elliott Management, attempted to oust CEO Jack Dorsey over the social media firm's unprofitability and high executive turnover. As chairman, Pichette is expected to drive greater management stability and a stronger focus on the financial bottom line, and commentators have suggested that the move is part of the agreement that allowed Dorsey to stay.

However, given that Pichette and Kordestani share a background—they were contemporaries at Google, Kordestani having served as the tech giant's Chief Business Officer from 2014 to 2015—it is dubious how much else might actually change.

Pichette has also publicly supported Twitter's recent stance on moderating social media, particularly the platform's fact-checking and moderation of US President Donald Trump's tweets, which led to considerable acrimony between Trump and Dorsey over recent months.

In a statement, Pichette said that his appointment demonstrates Twitter's "commitment to good governance" and described it as evolving the company's governance structure "in line with best practices".