Who is Parag Agrawal? What you need to know about the new Twitter CEO
“Curious, inquiring, rational, creative, demanding, reflective and humble” – so describes Twitter’s ex-boss Jack Dorsey succeeded Parag Agrawal. The previous CTO will take over the management of Twitter with immediate effect.
Agrawal has a deep understanding of the company and has been involved in all important decisions in the past, Dorsey continues. He had intended Agrawal for the position for a long time and the board unanimously decided in favor of him.
Agrawal studied computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and later received a PhD from Stanford University, also in computer science. He worked in research for a few months at Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T, among others.
Agrawal has been with Twitter for over 10 years. In October 2011 he started as a developer. “This time feels like yesterday,” he wrote in his on Monday first internal communication as CEO. He has seen challenges, obstacles, mistakes and gains over the past decade.
Since 2017, Agrawal was Chief Technology Officer at Twitter. In this position he was responsible for the technical development of the platform, including machine learning and artificial intelligence. The further development of Twitter’s timeline was also his responsibility.
Another major project under the leadership of Agrawal was the so-called Bluesky project. The aim is to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. This could be used for a wide variety of services and Twitter itself might just be one of many clients. Dorsey initiated the project at the end of 2019 and entrusted Agrawal with the management.
The first big challenge for Agrawal are Twitter’s ambitious growth targets that they have set themselves in February were made known. Twitter aims to reach 315 million paying users a day by the end of 2023 and at least double its annual income.
Dorsey’s critics on the board had wrested these goals from the ex-Twitter boss. “I think the strategy is brave and right,” said Agrawal.
Did Dorsey hand over his post to Agrawal voluntarily? If you believe the messages of the two, that is the case. Dorsey praises Agrawal’s character and expertise. “I am grateful for your continuous company and friendship,” said Agrawal, returning the praise. He particularly emphasizes that Dorsey has strengthened a special “culture, soul and purpose” in the employees.
This can be read as an indication that Agrawal is actually one of the Dorsey supporters and not one of those who criticize Dorsey for his leadership style. A year ago, Dorsey almost resigned, aimed at by the billionaire investor and Elliot Management founder Paul Singer. He had long been a thorn in the side of Dorsey’s dual role as CEO of Square and Twitter. After the Twitter management had committed to the ambitious growth targets, the situation calmed down for the time being.
Now the change in leadership that the critics have longed for has taken place. It remains to be seen whether Agrawal will meet their requirements or continue Dorsey’s line. The first reactions on the stock exchange to the leadership changes were at least positive: the Twitter share rose sharply after the announcement.
