Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of microblogging social media platform, Twitter is stepping down as CEO after serving for 16 long years. Twitter’s CTO, Parag Agrawal will be the new CEO of Twitter as announced by the company.
Jack’s resignation is effective immediately however he will be on the board of Twitter for 18 more months to ensure a smooth transition.
Jack Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO and Parag Agrawal is now the new CEO
Twitter board members have unanimously appointed Parag as Jack’s successor.
Jack said in a statement, “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders.”
Below is the full note shared by Jack about his resignation on Twitter:
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021
Jack did not reveal any additional information about his decision to resign as CEO of Twitter. Twitter shares surged 9% in early trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange after the news was made public.
Soon after his appointment as the new CEO, Parag issued a statement saying he is grateful to Dorsey for the guidance and “mentorship” received over the last ten years.
Parag wrote, “I am honoured and humbled. And I’m grateful for your continued mentorship and your friendship. I’m grateful for the service that you built, the culture, soul, and purpose you fostered among us and for leading the company through really significant challenges”
Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future. Here’s the note I sent to the company. Thank you all for your trust and support 💙 https://t.co/eNatG1dqH6 pic.twitter.com/liJmTbpYs1
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) November 29, 2021
Jack Dorsey, 45, was serving as CEO not only for Twitter but also Square Inc, his digital payments company. In an email sent to stakeholders, Dorsey said that Parag Agrawal has been his choice to lead the company “for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs.”
Twitter has set aggressive goals for the next few years for growth that will be now led by Parag. Twitter has set its goal in 2021 to have 315 million monetizable daily active users in the next two years and achieve 100% growth in revenue by the end of 2023.
Parag Agrawal is associated with Twitter for more than ten years now and has been serving as CTO for the last four years. He was head of strategy involving AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning).
He has led many projects in his tenure to ensure Twitter users get relevant tweets on their respective timelines. Before joining Twitter, Parag worked at AT&T, Microsoft, and Yahoo in different roles.
Jack co-founded social networking giant company, Twitter along with Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006. He served as CEO for two years till 2008 when he was ousted out of the role. In 2015, Jack made a come back to Twitter as boss after former CEO Dick Costolo stepped down.
Twitter shares gave an absolute return of 85% since Jack took over as CEO in 2015.