Thirty-seven year old Indian-born technology executive Parag Agrawal has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter after the social media giant's co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down on Monday, November 29. In a note posted on Twitter, Dorsey said that Parag has been his choice for CEO for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. He also said that Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn the company around, adding, “My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep.”
So who is Parag Agrawal, the youngest tech executive to join the group of Indian-origin heads of technology companies in the US including Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella?
Parag, who is an IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, attended a central school under the Atomic Energy Education Society in Maharashtra. At IIT, he graduated in Computer Science and Engineering, and did his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Before joining Twitter, he was involved in research projects at major companies including Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Parag said he joined Twitter a decade ago, in 2011, when there were fewer than 1,000 employees. He started as an ads engineer, as part of the team that managed the company’s advertising technologies, and eventually became the Chief Technology Officer in 2017. He has also contributed to Twitter’s Bluesky project, an independent team funded by Twitter to develop an open and decentralised standard for social media.
Following the announcement of his appointment as CEO, Parag said in a note on Twitter, “Our purpose has never been more important. Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world. There is no limit to what we can do together.”
“Lots of people are going to have lots of different views and opinions about today's news. It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it's a signal that the work we do here matters,” Parag added.