“My trust in him as our CEO is bone-deep."
Parag Agrawal was announced as the new CEO of Twitter after his predecessor revealed that he was stepping down.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced on November 29, 2021, that he was to resign from his position as CEO.
Thirty-seven-year-old Parag joined Twitter in 2011 and has since climbed the ranks to become the firm’s chief technology officer.
Before joining Twitter, Parag had worked at Microsoft, Yahoo and US telecoms giant AT&T in various roles.
The news of his new role has led to celebrations across India, where Twitter has more than 30 million users.
Many took to the social media platform to congratulate Parag, highlighting that he is now the youngest CEO of an S&P 500 company.
Parag has also joined the long list of Indian CEOs of global technology firms including Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.
Billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted:
“USA benefits greatly from Indian talent.”
Anand Mahindra, of the Mahindra Group, tweeted:
“This is one pandemic that we are happy and proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO virus… no vaccine against it.”
In a Twitter statement shared on November 29, 2021, Jack Dorsey wrote:
“Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around.
“He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware and humble.
“My trust in him as our CEO is bone-deep.”
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
Parag responded to the statement via Twitter and wrote:
“Thank you, Jack. I’m honoured and humbled. And I’m grateful for your continued mentorship and friendship.”
“I joined this company 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees.”
“While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me.”
Parag, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, was appointed Twitter CTO in March 2018.
He succeeded Adam Messinger, who left the company in December 2016.
Parag’s appointment was announced internally in October 2017.
Since the news of his appointment, Parag Agarwal has received a momentous amount of attention on social media, however, it is not all positive.
A tweet that he shared in 2010 is currently circulating the app. It quoted a comedian mocking racism and Islamophobia in America.
This tweet by the incoming Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has been doing the rounds. The quotation marks stood out for me, so I did a little factcheck. ? pic.twitter.com/UPGCNHtiID
— Divya Karthikeyan (@divya_krthk) November 29, 2021
Parag quoted Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show which has now led social media users to speculate that he is left-leaning.
Many have described him as racist.
However, other users have defended the new CEO and claimed that the quote is a joke about stereotypes rather than a factual statement.
Parag Agrawal is yet to make an official statement addressing the tweet.
Loading ...