Parag Agrawal is the new Twitter CEO after Jack Dorsey steps down

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as the Twitter head and handed over the reins of the social media company to CTO Parag Agrawal on Monday.

The new appointment makes the 37-year-old Indian-origin techie the youngest in the league to head an S&P 500 company. This puts him at the opposite end of the spectrum of Warren Buffet, the oldest CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., at 91. 

“My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past ten years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead,” said Dorsey, while announcing the transition. 

With a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai followed by a Doctorate in Computer Science from Stanford University, Agrawal has on his resume stints with Microsoft, Yahoo, and AT&T. Agrawal joined Twitter as an engineer in 2007, a time when the company was just beginning to make its way up the ranks. A steady growth pattern within the company saw him become the CTO in 2017. 

Agrawal already seems to have his plans in place as the new CEO. In an internal message to the Twitter employees, he addressed a mix of goals and challenges. “I recognize that some of you know me well, some just a little, and some not at all,” began his introduction. The message steadily moved on to discuss specific strategies.

“We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right. But our critical challenge is how we work to execute against it and deliver results — that’s how we’ll make Twitter be the best it can be for our customers, shareholders, and for each of you,” he wrote.

Agrawal’s appointment also focused once again on the number of Indian CEOs heading tech giants in the US. Twitter now joins the elite league of companies such as Microsoft, Google, Palo Alto Networks, IBM, and Adobe, led by CEOs of Indian origin.

Even Elon Musk couldn’t resist the benefit of the Indian subcontinent’s talent pool and tweeted, “The US greatly benefits from Indian talent!”