Linda Yaccarino will join the Board of Directors of Better Home and Finance, the company announced Thursday. The former X CEO will focus on scaling the AI-native Tinman platform to expand homeownership, enforcing cost discipline and driving long-term shareholder value.
Linda Yaccarino | Credit: LinkedIn
“Better is making life’s largest financial decision for an American family more affordable, more accessible, and more transparent with AI. I am excited to be a part of something so important,” Yaccarino said in a statement to the media. “When we were building X Money, I saw how friction in financial services affects the lives of hardworking American families, and the single greatest friction is what families experience when getting a mortgage.”
Yaccarino’s experience as CEO of X during the aftermath of Elon Musk’s controversial takeover offers an interesting parallel in light of Better’s recent controversies.
At X, she was brought in to win back advertisers and restore shareholder confidence. She joins Better at a pivotal time just weeks after the Better board waved the white flag in a leadership standoff with founder and Head of Product, Platform and Innovation, Vishal Garg.
“Linda’s extensive experience in enterprise partnerships, advertising and consumer behavior serves Better very well,” Garg said in the statement. “She has spent her career turning powerful technology into solutions that work for millions of consumers. With her on the Board, Better 2.0 is about scaling what we’ve built so more Americans can own a home.”
Prior to her time at X, Yaccarino spent more than a decade at NBCUniversal, overseeing nearly $10 billion in annual advertising revenue as Chair of Global Advertising and Partnerships. Her career got its start at Turner Entertainment, where she rose to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions under her purview.
During Better’s recent board fight, Garg was ousted as CEO, while the company’s board spent weeks resisting his campaign to retake control, at one point suing Garg and opening an investigation into his handling of shareholder consents.
In a Sept. 30 SEC filing, Garg’s faction said it had secured enough written consents to remove interim CEO Daniel Lewis and four other directors from the Better board, but that Garg would not return as CEO.
In addition, the group laid out a 90-day plan for cost savings, scaling HELOC and Tinman AI volume, selling its U.K. banking operation and pursuing a $30 million share buyback. These moves have since been consolidated under the Better 2.0 banner.
