New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino made her mark in Deer Park

When Elon Musk tapped Linda Yaccarino, an advertising executive with Long Island roots as his Twitter chief executive, her twin sister and Deer Park High School classmates cheered even as some online critics pounced.

High school classmate Tony Russo recalled Linda and Lori Yaccarino as "very popular girls" who were part of the in-crowd.

The sisters, now 60, also were achievers, active in extracurricular life, he said.

Both participated in the student council, varsity club, variety show, cheerleading squad and senior play, according to the high school yearbook.

Beyond student activities, Deer Park High School was not cloistered from the youth culture of the time, Russo recalled.

"This is 1981, so 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' is in full effect," he said, referring to the Sean Penn movie depicting hard-partying high schoolers.

Russo, who lives in Virginia, said, if memory serves, the Class of 1981 presented "The Odd Couple" as its senior play with the Yaccarino twins playing messenger girls who served the Felix character with divorce papers and Russo as one of the poker players.

Linda, who earned a bachelor's degree from Penn State, keeps Long Island ties. She and her husband, Claude Madrazo, a former executive at Turner Broadcasting System, sold a house in Sea Cliff in 2021 and bought a condominium in Woodbury. They also own an apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Linda's older sister, Kathleen Yaccarino, is managing director at MUFG Union Bank, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Before Musk plucked her to be Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino's career arced steadily upward in the world of broadcast media. She rose to become executive vice president and chief operating officer at Turner Broadcasting before joining NBCUniversal in 2011. In her most recent role there as chairman of global advertising and partnerships, she oversaw market strategy and advertising revenue.

While friends and family cheered the achievements of Linda Yaccarino, her Twitter reception was mixed, with some blasting her with bare-knuckle political commentary.

Fittingly, in December, Musk had tweeted that his successor in running Twitter, now renamed X Corp., "must like pain a lot."

Online critics chided Yaccarino for her links to the World Economic Forum, a bête noir of some conservatives who see it as an instrument of "globalists." In January, Musk himself tweeted that the annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, which draws leaders of business, politics and academia, is akin to an "unelected world government."  

Yaccarino's LinkedIn profile lists her as chairman of the World Economic Forum's task force on the future of work.

Some fans of Musk's looser content moderation at Twitter also questioned her commitment to maintaining the platform as an outpost of unbridled free speech, given her close links to established advertisers who often prefer a non-controversial format in presenting their brands.

In addition to her role with NBCUniversal, Yaccarino served as vice chairman of The Advertising Council, a nonprofit whose mission is to create public service advertising designed to promote an "inclusive and equitable culture." 

A month before Musk's May 12 Tweet announcing that he had hired Yaccarino, she interviewed him at Possible, an April conference in Miami for marketing executives. In the interview, Musk championed free speech. "If we lose that, I think we lose the bedrock of democracy," he said. But he also said Twitter should provide "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach," suggesting that hateful speech would not be amplified by the platform.

When Yaccarino quizzed Musk on how advertisers could ensure their campaigns don't land "in these awful, hateful places," Musk cited "adjacency controls," designed to separate advertising from controversial topics.

Filtering through any vitriol aimed at Linda Yaccarino, meanwhile, came the voice of her twin, Lori Yaccarino Armstrong, who carved out her own career as a registered nurse, executive and health care consultant. 

In a LinkedIn post, Lori said that those "trying to learn about who Linda is" should consult these lessons instilled by their parents:

1. "Treat everyone with kindness and care."

2. "Be the voice of those in need."

3. "You can achieve anything."

4. "Do the right thing, always...Follow [your moral compass] and never wander."

5. "Everything starts and ends with your faith, your family and your friends."

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.