Ryan Holmes is stepping back into the corner office at Hootsuite, the Vancouver-born social media management platform he founded over a decade ago, taking over as interim CEO following the departure of Irina Novoselsky.

Novoselsky announced her exit on LinkedIn on Monday, describing it as her last day as CEO. In a post that struck a reflective tone, she credited her tenure with returning the company to profitability, building out an enterprise growth engine, and completing the acquisition of social intelligence platform Talkwalker. She framed the transition as a mutual decision with the board. "The Board and I believe this is the right moment for a leadership transition," she wrote.

Holmes, who led Hootsuite for more than a decade before stepping back from day-to-day operations, said he was thrilled to return. In his own LinkedIn post, he pointed to momentum built under Novoselsky's watch — enterprise growth, advancements in data and AI, category leadership — while signaling a tighter product focus ahead. "Hootsuite has always been at its best when we're building, when we're close to our customers, and pushing the product forward," he wrote.

The transition comes against a difficult backdrop. Hootsuite has faced significant public criticism in recent months over its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which uses the platform's social media monitoring capabilities. The deal sparked backlash from employees, digital rights advocates, and privacy groups, putting Novoselsky and the company's leadership under sustained pressure. Neither post addressed the controversy directly.

Holmes acknowledged the broader moment the company finds itself in. "We're at an important moment, not just as a company, but as a category, an industry, and as a society," he wrote. "AI is changing how we organize and communicate. That's the opportunity in front of us."

The founder's return follows a familiar playbook in the tech world — think Steve Jobs at Apple or Howard Schultz at Starbucks — where a founding figure steps back in during a period of turbulence to steady the ship. Whether Holmes can navigate the reputational fallout from the ICE contract while keeping Hootsuite's enterprise momentum intact will be the defining challenge of his second act.

Hootsuite has not announced a timeline for a permanent CEO search.