Graduate School of Business alumnus Ali Rowghani ’02, former CFO and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Pixar Animation Studios, has been selected by Twitter, Inc. as the company’s new chief financial officer.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Twitter, Inc., in the search to “generate an income stream more commensurate with its popularity,” hired Rowghani in an act that “could be key to Twitter’s financial future.”

Twitter previously signed $25 million in Internet search deals with Microsoft and Google, yielding a profit. The Chronicle noted that Twitter officials have dropped hints of introducing a form of advertising for the coming year, although this is still unconfirmed.

Rowghani, a Fulbright scholar who began at Pixar in 2001, is scheduled to join Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco in March.

-Christine McFadden