LinkedIn’s New CEO
- LinkedIn named internal executive Daniel Shapero as its new CEO, replacing Ryan Roslansky immediately. - Shapero moves up from COO as Microsoft positions the platform for a more explicitly AI-driven era. - Reuters and TechCrunch reported the leadership change and framed it as a signal for LinkedIn’s product and distribution pivot ( ).
LinkedIn replaced Ryan Roslansky with chief operating officer Daniel Shapero as chief executive on April 22, and the change took effect immediately. (techcrunch.com) TechCrunch reported Roslansky stepped down after six years as LinkedIn chief executive. Roslansky said in a LinkedIn post, as described by TechCrunch, that he remains an executive vice president at Microsoft and that Shapero will report to him. (techcrunch.com) Shapero is not an outside hire. He moved up from chief operating officer, giving Microsoft a familiar operator to run a business that sits inside its Productivity and Business Processes division. (techcrunch.com) The handoff lands as Microsoft keeps describing LinkedIn in more explicitly artificial-intelligence terms. In its 2025 annual report, Microsoft said LinkedIn’s paid products are built to offer “AI-enabled insights and productivity.” (microsoft.com) Microsoft’s latest quarterly results showed LinkedIn still growing. In the quarter ended December 31, 2025, LinkedIn revenue rose 11% year over year, according to Microsoft’s January 28, 2026 earnings release. (microsoft.com) Microsoft has also been pushing paid and AI features on the platform for more than a year. On its January 29, 2025 earnings call, the company said LinkedIn Premium had passed $2 billion in annual revenue and that nearly 40% of subscribers had used AI tools to improve their profiles. (microsoft.com) Roslansky took over LinkedIn in June 2020, according to TechCrunch, during a period when the platform was becoming more central to recruiting, creator-style posting, and subscription products. TechCrunch said LinkedIn grew from about 700 million members and roughly $8 billion in annual revenue at the start of his tenure to 1.3 billion members and more than $17 billion in revenue. (techcrunch.com) That leaves Shapero inheriting a bigger platform and a narrower brief: keep LinkedIn growing while Microsoft leans harder on artificial intelligence across search, productivity software, and professional networking. The management shuffle changed the name at the top on April 22, but it did not move LinkedIn outside Microsoft’s broader AI strategy. (microsoft.com)
