Introducing Twitter’s New CEO, Parag Agrawal

When Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced that he was stepping down as CEO, his successor was named—and took the reins—effective immediately. Formerly the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Parag Agrawal, boasts a 10-year tenure with the social media site as well as deep experience with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

As CTO, the 37-year-old headed Twitter’s technical strategy and the company’s Blue Sky initiative, aimed at decentralizing the global social media landscape. He has also endeavored to increase transparency and eliminate implicit bias in machine learning applications while making tweets more relevant to the site’s users.

Agrawal, who holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University as well as a bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, received Twitter’s initial Distinguished Engineer award based on his success in increasing audience size and revenue. His previous positions include research work for AT&T Labs, Microsoft and Yahoo.

In his resignation tweet, Dorsey shared that, “My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead.” Dorsey further described Agrawal as “curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble.”

In response, Agrawal, now the youngest CEO among the S&P 500, noted that “Our purpose has never been more important…There is no limit to what we can do together…Let’s show the world Twitter’s full potential.”

Twitter’s goal is to reach 315 million monetizable daily active users in the next two years, while at least doubling its annual revenue.