Twitter co-founder and chief executive officer Jack Dorsey on November 29 stepped down from his position. The company’s board has unanimously appointed the company’s chief technology officer Parag Agrawal as his successor.
The former CEO stated in an e-mail to Twitter that, “This was my own decision and I own it. it was a tough one for me, of course. I love this service, the company, and all of you so much. I’m really sad, yet really happy. There aren’t many that get to this level. Ans there arent many founders that choose their company over their ego. I know we’ll prove this was the right move.”
He further stated, “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead.”
The newly appointed CEO, Parag Agrawal is an Indian-American technology executive and the chief executive officer of Twitter. Agrawal joined Twitter as Distinguished Software Engineer in 2011 and became the chief technology officer in 2017. As CTO, he has been responsible for the company’s technical strategy, leading work to improve development velocity while advancing the state of Machine Learning across the company.
Before being appointed CTO, Parag had risen to be Twitter’s first Distinguished Engineer due to his revenue and consumer engineering work, including his impact on the re-acceleration of audience growth in 2016 and 2017. Before joining Twitter, Parag worked for renowned companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and AT&T Labs. Parag holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
The resignation of Dorsey, who has been heading Twitter as its chief executive officer since 2015, comes into effect immediately. However, he will remain a board member until his term expires in 2022 to help enable a smooth transition for the newly appointed CEO, Parag Agrawal.
