Twitch CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear is leaving the streaming giant

Twitch co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear is leaving his position after sixteen years at the streaming giant. He wants to spend more time with his family, but will continue to support Twitch in an advisor role.

Emmett Shear, via LinkedIn

“With my first child just born, I’ve been thinking about my future with Twitch. Often times, Twitch feels like a child I raised too. And while I’ll always want to be there when Twitch needs me, Twitch feels like 16 years old ready to leave home and spread his wings. So it is with great emotion that I share my decision to resign from Twitch as CEO. I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to take on new challenges. I will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role,” Shear said in a detailed farewell letter on Twitter.

The role of CEO will be filled internally by Twitch President Don Clancy. Twitch is still looking for a new president. The news follows shortly after the resignation of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who held the position for 9 years.

Shear has been on Twitch from the beginning. However, the streaming platform didn’t start with that name; first there was Justin.tv, a lifecasting platform, founded in 2007. Co-founder Justin Kan broadcast almost his entire life via a live stream on that website and other hosts were added at a later date. Live gaming broadcasting was also possible on the site and at one point it became the most popular part of the site. In 2011 it became an independent spin-off of Justin.tv and in 2014 the popular platform was acquired by Amazon. That same year, Justin.tv also went offline, although Twitch now has plenty of non-gaming sections, such as just chatting, sports, talk shows, travel and art.