FACT CHECK: Did The CEOs Of Twitter, Walmart And CNBC Resign Nov. 29?
An image shared on Facebook over 1,700 times claims Twitter, Walmart and CNBC’s respective chief executive officers (CEOs) resigned Nov. 29.
Verdict: Misleading
While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey did resign Nov. 29, neither the CEO of Walmart nor the chairman of CNBC did so. Walmart announced Nov. 29 that its chief financial officer – not its CEO – would be departing in 2023.
Fact Check:
Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-girlfriend and confidant of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is currently on trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls for sex, according to The New York Times. Facebook users have since been claiming the CEOs of Twitter, Walmart and CNBC resigned on Nov. 29, the day her criminal trial started.
It is true that Twitter announced in a press release Monday that Dorsey had decided to step down, with Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal replacing him as CEO “effective immediately.”
However, neither Walmart nor Doug McMillon, the company’s CEO and president, announced McMillon had resigned Nov. 29. He remains listed as holding those two positions on Walmart’s corporate website, and a departure on his part from the CEO role is not mentioned in the company’s most recent 8-K form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Instead, Walmart said in a Nov. 29 press release that CFO Brett Biggs will “begin transitioning from the company during this upcoming year,” remaining in the CFO role until a successor is named in 2022 and leaving the company on Jan. 31, 2023.
CNBC’s website does not include a CEO among the positions listed on its leadership team webpage, but it does have a chairman, Mark Hoffman, who has held that position since 2015. A search of CNBC’s press releases did not yield any statements about Hoffman leaving the company.
“This is categorically untrue,” a CNBC spokesperson confirmed to Check Your Fact in an email. (RELATED: Does This Photo Show Don Lemon With Jeffrey Epstein?)
A study by Heidrick & Struggles, a recruiting firm, found that companies “made a record number of CEO appointments in the first half of 2021.” There has been a so-called “Great Resignation” this year, with some 4.4 million people quitting their jobs in the month of September, CBS News reported.