Twitter on Monday appointed an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay alumnus Parag Agarwal as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Agarwal will be succeeding Jock Dorsey, according to a report by Reuters. The appointment of Agrawal, who completed his PhD in computer science from Stanford University in 2011, was announced on Monday, November 29.
Agrawal was earlier serving as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Twitter and was appointed in 2018. He joined Twitter in 2011.
"Deep gratitude for jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future. Here’s the note I sent to the company. Thank you all for your trust and support", wrote Agarwal on Twitter.
In the statement, Agrawal said grateful for Dorsey's "continued mentorship and friendship". "I'm grateful for the service that you built, the culture, soul, and purpose you fostered among us, and for leading the company through significant challenges. I'm grateful for the trust you've put in me and for your continued partnership," he wrote.
Who is this Indian-American?
Agrawal has completed his Bachelor’s degree from IIT Bombay in Computer Science, before moving to the US. In 2005, he’d enrolled into the Computer Science PhD program at Stanford. During his PhD, he’d held research positions at Microsoft, AT&T Labs and Yahoo.
He’d then joined Twitter in 2011 as an Ads engineer, and through the years had been promoted to a Distinguished Software Engineer. Earlier, at Twitter, he’d been focused on using AI to increase the relevance of tweets on users’ timelines.
Twitter Inc CEO Officer Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role earlier today. He tweeted his about his resigination and wrote, "not sure anyone has heard but, I resigned from Twitter".
Dorsey's resignation will come into effect immediately. However, he will remain a member of the Board till around May 2022 to enable a smooth transition.
"I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders," Dorsey said in a statement.
In the statement, Dorsey was all praises for Agrawal. "He's been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped this company around. He's curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO in bone deep," he said.
The company's board has been preparing for Dorsey's departure since last year, a report said. The move comes after the Elliott Management Corp asked Dorsey to step down in early 2020, when the hedge fund argued he was paying too little attention to Twitter while also running payments processing company Square Inc
Agrawal joins the growing list of Indians who’ve made it to C-level positions at tech giants — Sundar Pichai is the current CEO at Google, and Satya Nadella currently leads Microsoft. Padmashree Warrior had held the CTO role at networking giant Cisco for many years.
