Dick Costolo is an American businessman. He was the CEO of Twitter from 2010 to 2015; he also served as the COO before becoming CEO. He took over as CEO from Evan Williams in October 2010. On June 11, 2015, it was announced that Costolo would step down as CEO on July 1, 2015, and would be replaced by Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey on an interim basis until the Board of Directors could find a replacement. In 2011, he was appointed to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
Dick Costolo was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Computer and Communication Sciences in the mid-80s. He became heavily involved in improvisational theater while in college, and subsequently moved to Chicago to focus on a career in improv comedy. He then returned to his technology roots, working for Anderson Consulting for eight years, and then launching his own technology company, Burning Door Networked Media. After selling Burning Door to Digital Knowledge Assets in 1996, he founded SpyOnIt. He sold the company four years later. He subsequently co-founded FeedBurner, which was bought up by Google. He worked for Google for a few years, and then became the COO of Twitter in 2009.
