Summary
The 37-year-old was earlier CTO where he oversaw Twitter’s pursuit of blockchain and other decentralised technologies
Agrawal has worked with collaborators at Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, and AT&T Labs
Parag Agrawal, a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from IIT Bombay, PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and the Chief Technology Officer at Twitter, is going to take over as CEO of Twitter, according to an announcement made by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
The 2005 IIT Bombay graduate, as CTO, was responsible for Twitter’s pursuit of Blockchain and other decentralised technologies.
Dorsey has stepped down as the chief executive officer, making way for the 37-year-old engineer. Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022.
Since joining Twitter in 2011, Agarwal has led efforts on scaling Twitter Ads systems, as well as re-accelerating user growth by improving home timeline relevance. Prior to joining Twitter, he was involved with research in large-scale data management with collaborators at Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, and AT&T Labs.
Dorsey described Agrawal as curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware and humble.
The share price of Twitter jumped up nearly 5% after Jack Dorsey decided to step down as CEO. The stock has multiplied over 2.5 times since its listing in 2016 but the last year has been tough.
Agarwal accepted his role and expressed gratitude on Twitter:
“Deep gratitude for @jack (Jack Dorsey) 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”
Agrawal’s special memories of IIT Bombay include “working with friends to build shared storage and streaming services over the hostel intranet and spending time near Vihar Lake behind Hostel 4 with close friends”.
IIT Bombay director Subhasis Chaudhuri congratulated the old boy. “The significance of a university is often judged by the collective achievements of its alumni and the glory that they bring to their alma mater. Parag Agrawal is one such alumnus that IIT Bombay is proud of. The education and the ambiance that IITB provided to Parag, not too long ago, helped in bringing out the best in him. Building on top of it with hard work and dedication, Parag has reached the top. Our congratulations to him and we hope that IITB can continue to produce such achievers,” he said.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has also congratulated Agrawal on his achievement via twitter.
Last updated on 30 Nov 2021
