Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Steps Down, CTO Parag Agrawal Chosen as Successor

Twitter Chief Government Officer Jack Dorsey has resigned from his position and firm CTO Parag Agrawal has been unanimously chosen by the board as his successor. The corporate’s board has been making ready for Dorsey’s departure since final yr, a supply instructed Reuters. The information comes as Twitter has accelerated the tempo of its product innovation over the previous yr to compete with social media rivals corresponding to Fb and TikTok, and to achieve its objective of doubling annual income by 2023.

Dorsey additionally tweeted to elucidate his causes for stepping down as Twitter CEO after 16 years and why Agrawal was match to steer the corporate Dorsey co-founded in 2006.

“I’ve determined to depart Twitter as a result of I imagine the corporate is able to transfer on from its founders. My belief in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the previous 10 years has been transformational. I am deeply grateful for his ability, coronary heart, and soul. It is his time to steer,” mentioned Dorsey.

undecided anybody has heard however,

I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl

— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021

“I need to thank the Board for his or her confidence in my management and Jack for his continued mentorship, help, and partnership,” mentioned Agrawal in a ready assertion. “I stay up for constructing on every little thing we’ve achieved beneath Jack’s management and I’m extremely energised by the alternatives forward”.

Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has served as Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) since October 2017, as per a press assertion launched by Twitter. Previous to being appointed CTO, the corporate mentioned Agrawal rose to be Twitter’s first ‘Distinguished Engineer’ attributable to his work throughout income and shopper engineering. The Indian-origin govt holds a Ph.D. in Pc Science from Stanford College and a Bachelor’s Diploma in Pc Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Expertise, Bombay.

Along with Dorsey’s departure and Agrawal taking up as Twitter CEO, the corporate additionally introduced that Bret Taylor, a member of the Twitter Board since 2016, has been named Unbiased Chair of the Board.

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Shares of the microblogging platform surged 9 % in early buying and selling, whereas these of digital funds agency Sq., of which Dorsey can be chief govt, had been up 3 %. Buying and selling within the shares was then suspended forward of an anticipated announcement.

In his tweet on November 28, Dorsey mentioned: “I really like twitter”. The “likes” on that tweet surged to greater than 54,000 on Monday.

CNBC was first to report Dorsey’s transfer.

In early 2020, Dorsey confronted calls from Elliott Administration Corp to step down, after the hedge fund argued that he was paying too little consideration to Twitter whereas additionally operating funds processing firm Sq. Inc.

Dorsey fended off the strain by giving Elliott and its ally, buyout agency Silver Lake Companions, seats on Twitter’s board.