SunTrust's Top 5 Twitter CEO Candidates

Twitter Inc TWTR shareholders are anxiously awaiting the announcement of the company’s next CEO while the social media company’s stock has plummeted 24.4 percent in the past three months. With the rampant speculation about exactly who will succeed Dick Costolo, SunTrust analyst Robert Peck released a new report this week that named SunTrust’s top five picks for the next Twitter CEO.

Search criteria
SunTrust performed an in-depth review of the Twitter board and the relationships that are currently in place, as well as the skill sets required for the leadership position at the company. While there is a countless number of qualified leaders in the business world, SunTrust believes that familiarity and trust will play a critical role in the decision.

SunTrust lists five criteria for Twitter’s next CEO:
1. Active member of the online Twitter community
2. Reputation as a product expert
3. Experience in the advertising business
4. Well-connected in the media world
5. History of leadership in a large (preferably media) company

Top 5 names
After applying the aforementioned criteria to a large list of possible candidates for the CEO position, SunTrust came up with the following list of the top five candidates for the job:
1. Jack Dorsey, Chairman and Interim CEO of Twitter and CEO of Square
2. Adam Bain, President, Global Revenue & Partnerships at Twitter
3. Mike McCue, CEO and Co-Founder, Flipboard, former Twitter board member, previously at Netscape
4. Ross Levinsohn, Chairman at Scout; former CEO of Yahoo! Inc YHOO and President of Fox Interactive
5. Neal Mohan, VP, Display Advertising Products, Google Inc GOOGGOOGL

Time to make a move
Regardless of the company’s decision, SunTrust believes that the Twitter board should make a decision quickly to minimize the distraction created by the selection process. SunTrust has a Neutral rating on Twitter and a $40 target for the stock.