Parag Agrawal has been appointed the new Twitter CEO after Jack Dorsey resigned on Monday
Parag is an IITian from Mumbai. He has done his doctorate from Stanford; Parag joined Twitter in 2011, and in 2017 he became CTO at the company.
Mumbai, NFAPost: Parag Agrawal became Twitter CEO on Monday after Jack Dorsey announced his resignation. Parag, who until now was Twitter’s CTO, is assuming the role as the company CEO immediately.
Parag Agarwal, 37, like another Indian-origin tech CEO is also from IIT, Bombay.
In a press note, Twitter gave details of Parag’s career within the company stating that he joined Twitter in 2011 and has served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since October 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,” states the company.
Prior to being appointed CTO, the company states that Parag Agarwal had risen to be Twitter’s first distinguished engineer due to his work across revenue and consumer engineering, including his impact on the re-acceleration of audience growth in 2016 and 2017.
“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 company said.
Parag Agarwal did his bachelors in engineering in computer science in IIT, Bombay. Then he moved to the US for further studies, with his doctorate coming from Stanford University. He did his schooling from Atomic Energy Central School. Parag Agarwal’s mother is a retired school teacher. His father was employed in the atomic energy sector and held senior positions there.
Parag Agarwal joined Twitter in 2011. Before that, he briefly worked at Microsoft, AT&T and Yahoo. In all three companies, his work was mostly research-oriented. Initially, at Twitter, he worked on ad-related products, but gradually he also dabbled in artificial intelligence. In 2017, when he was promoted to the role of Twitter CTO.
“In his capacity as CTO, he’s focused on scaling a cohesive machine learning and AI approach across our consumer and revenue product and infrastructure teams,” the company said in a statement.
Parag Agarwal is apparently liked by outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey. In his email on Monday sent to all Twitter employees, Dorsey wrote that the board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag.
“He’s been my choice for some time, given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep,” states Jack Dorsey.
A New York Times report, quoting Silicon Valley insiders, says that, just like Jack Dorsey, Parag Agarwal too is “quiet, polite, deeply technical and enthused about an internet where power and control are given back to users.”
The report terms him the spiritual successor of Jack Dorsey. A Twitter employee, in the same report, has been quoted as saying that Parag is a “pragmatic” engineer and leader.
Twitter has revealed that as the Mumbai-born CEO Parag Agarwal will be given an annual compensation of $1 million as well as stock compensation worth $12.5 million.
In a tweet, Bombay IIT congratulated its alumnus Dr. Parag Agrawal for being appointed the new CEO of Twitter. “Dr. Agrawal obtained his http://B.Tech. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2005. He started working at Twitter in 2011 & became the CTO in 2017,” tweets the Bombay IIT.
