Newspaper Guard ranked the prominent tech leaders of 2022, highlighting those who disappointed journalists the most. The list singled out Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, and Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, as the most notable disappointments.
Also featured were Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta, commonly described as controversial and facing bans in some regions, along with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who stepped down as company president in 2021, and Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter after a $44 billion acquisition. The piece notes these figures as central to a year of upheaval in the tech world.
Zuckerberg drew criticism in February for a sharp drop in Meta stock and for a decision that led to a large round of layoffs, affecting roughly 11,000 employees in a single day. Bezos was called out for widespread job cuts at Amazon and for efforts to rehabilitate his public image through philanthropic initiatives.
Elon Musk faced extensive scrutiny for a series of bold moves at Twitter, including large-scale staff reductions, policy changes, mandates for on-site work, and the controversial decision to install sleeping arrangements at the headquarters as a perk or symbol of commitment.
Parag Agrawal, who previously served as Twitter’s CEO before Musk, also appears on the list. Journalists argued that Musk’s triumph in acquiring the platform overshadowed Agrawal’s tenure, and that Agrawal ultimately lost his position on the very day the acquisition closed.
Theranos once stood as a beacon of innovation in the medical field, with Holmes hailed as a future Steve Jobs. Investigations later revealed a massive fraud, with Holmes accused of deceiving employees and sponsors alike. In 2022, the truth about the company’s practices was solidified in court proceedings.
November brought a catastrophic collapse for the FTX exchange, leaving millions of customers worldwide without access to their assets. In the months that followed, Sam Bankman-Fried continued to publicly defend his actions, asserting that funds would be returned, only to be arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States. He faced one of the most significant financial fraud allegations in American history.
A lesser publicized claim involved an unidentified hacker who allegedly pressed that Elon Musk would buy back data from about 400 million Twitter user accounts to prevent it from becoming publicly available. The claim drew attention to ongoing concerns about data privacy and corporate responsibility in the social media space.