Elon Musk is on the verge of appointing Linda Yaccarino, head of advertising at the US media giant NBC Universal, to replace him as Twitter’s chief executive.

Ms Yaccarino, who interviewed the Twitter owner at an advertising conference last month, is reportedly set to take the high-profile job in the coming weeks.

Mr Musk said on Thursday night that he had hired a new chief executive, adding that “she will be starting in [around] six weeks” without naming who he had appointed.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms Yaccarino, who has been at NBC Universal for more than a decade, was in talks to take the role.

NBC Universal, part of the media and telecoms giant Comcast, owns the Universal movie studio, the TV network NBC and the streaming service Peacock.

Ms Yaccarino is one of the 32 women that Mr Musk follows on Twitter. She interviewed the billionaire at a marketing conference in Miami last month, at which she praised his commitment to free speech.