New Twitter CEO steps into foreground from background
SAN FRANCISCO — When Jack Dorsey, then Twitter’s executive chairman, pushed the company to build out its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities in 2014, he turned to an engineer, Parag Agrawal.
When Dorsey later became Twitter’s CEO and needed help overhauling the company’s infrastructure, he also tapped Agrawal.
And when Dorsey envisioned a future for Twitter in 2019 that would be based on the concept of decentralization and technologies such as the blockchain, he again pulled in Agrawal to help.
On Monday, Dorsey made the handover complete when he stepped down as CEO and Agrawal, 37, was named Twitter’s new leader.
Agrawal, the chief technology officer since 2017, is little-known to the public, with even some Twitter insiders saying they were surprised by his appointment.
But behind the scenes, the India-born engineer has been a Twitter veteran and confidant of Dorsey’s who has been involved in many of the company’s biggest strategic initiatives. That made Dorsey effusive about his successor, saying in a tweet that the board had run a “rigorous” search for a new CEO and had “unanimously” endorsed Agrawal.
In his own message to employees Monday, Agrawal emphasized his knowledge of the company and his kinship with its workers.
“I joined this company 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees,” Agrawal wrote in the company email, which he also tweeted. “I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter’s incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us.”
Yet as Twitter’s new chief, Agrawal has his work cut out for him. The company, which is based in San Francisco, faces challenges, such as placating activist investors and calming an agitated Congress about its power, divisiveness and potential to censor free speech. Agrawal is also charged with carrying out Dorsey’s vision for decentralizing Twitter so that its users can eventually govern what is allowable on the service themselves.
Born in Mumbai, Agrawal studied computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, an elite technical university. In 2005, he moved to the United States and enrolled at Stanford University to pursue a doctorate in computer science. There, he joined a research group focused on databases, which let computers store and mine large amounts of digital information.
Agrawal’s focus on databases made him a natural fit for Twitter, which must juggle data arriving from tens of millions of people across the globe. He joined the company in 2011 before completing his doctorate and became a key member of the engineering team that oversaw the company’s advertising technologies.
He then became a member of what was known as the Twitter Architecture Group, or TAG, a team of top engineers who reviewed and improved the company’s projects that were under development.
When Dorsey returned to Twitter as CEO in 2015, Agrawal was one of his lieutenants who helped refocus the company’s efforts on the “timeline” that feeds tweets into a user’s Twitter app. In 2017, Twitter promoted Agrawal to chief technology officer.
Even as chief technology officer, Agrawal has kept a low profile. He worked behind the scenes to rebuild Twitter’s technical infrastructure, which had been cobbled together over the years. That led to engineering problems and prevented the company from introducing new products and services as quickly as it wanted. Agrawal helped Twitter shift to using cloud computing services from Google and Amazon, streamlining its operations.
Agrawal has also managed Twitter’s effort to incorporate cryptocurrencies into the platform, letting users send tips in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. And he has supported efforts to be transparent about Twitter’s algorithmic mistakes.
Agrawal’s emphasis on product development appealed to insiders who believed Twitter had moved too slowly to introduce new products, a person familiar with the succession process said.
Agrawal will receive an annual salary of $1 million, plus bonuses, as well as restricted stock units and performance-based stock units valued at $12.5 million, according to a company filing Monday.