Parag Agrawal replaces Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Co-Funder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of micro-blogging platform Twitter, Jack Dorsey, will step down from his position.

He will be replaced by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Parag Agrawal.

This was disclosed in a statement released by Twitter on Monday.

Dorsey expressed his trust in Agrawal and said the company was set to move on from its founders.

“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,” he said.

Though his replacement would take effect immediately, Dorsey would remain on the company’s board till the end of his term in 2022.

Dorsey co-founded the platform in 2006 and currently heads a digital payments company, Square.

Dorsey had resigned as CEO in 2008 but returned to the company in 2015.

He has come under criticism by one of the company’s stakeholders Elliot Management in 2020.

Founder of Elliot Management Paul Singer had said that Dorsey should not run two public companies and called on him to step down as CEO of one of them.

Dorsey said he had chosen Agrawal as his successor based on his deep understanding of the company’s needs.

The incoming CEO, Agrawal, has served as CTO of the company since 2017 and has been in charge of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the organisation.

Shares in the social media platform company rose more than 10 per cent after reports that the chief executive is set to step down.

Dorsey last tweeted on Sunday, saying simply: “I love Twitter.’’

In 2008, co-founder Ev Williams and board member Fred Wilson pushed out Dorsey as the social media site gained steam with users and they determined he was unfit to lead the company.

But after years of stagnant growth and a slumping share price, Dorsey returned as CEO in 2015 while continuing to lead Square.

In early 2020, Dorsey faced calls from Elliott Management Corp to step down, after the hedge fund argued that he was paying too little attention to Twitter while also running Square Inc.

Dorsey fended off the pressure by giving Elliott and its ally, buyout firm Silver Lake Partners, seats on Twitter’s board.