Jack Dorsey Steps Down as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO Monday, with chief technology officer Parag Agrawal taking over the role. Agrawal has been with Twitter for more than 10 years, joining the company as a software engineer in October 2011 and assuming the CTO position in October 2017. Dorsey will remain on Twitter’s board of directors until his term expires when the company holds its 2022 annual meeting, likely in May. He said in a statement, “I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. 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 elaborated in a tweet, “There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being ‘founder-led.’ Ultimately, I believe that’s severely limiting and a single point of failure. I’ve worked hard to ensure that this company can break away from its founding and founders.” https://twitter.com/jack/status/1465347002426867720 In other Twitter board news, Bret Taylor, a member since July 2016, was named chairman, succeeding Patrick Pichette, who will remain on the board and continue as chair of its audit committee. Dorsey co-founded Twitter along with Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams in March 2006, serving as CEO until being forced to vacate that role in 2008, with Williams and board member Fred Wilson pushing the board in that direction. Dorsey remained chairman of Twitter’s board. He founded digital payments platform Square in 2009 and had been serving as CEO of both companies. In 2011, Williams was replaced as Twitter CEO by then-chief operating officer Dick Costolo, with Dorsey taking a more active role later that year, becoming executive chairman with a focus on product development. Dorsey officially returned to the role of Twitter CEO in October 2015. However, Dorsey leading two companies concurrently didn’t sit well with activist investor Elliott Management, which made a strong push for him to relinquish one of those CEO roles in early 2020. An agreement was reached in March 2020, under which global technology investor Silver Lake infused $1 billion into Twitter, along with pledging to provide advisory, consulting and strategic services to the company. Silver Lake co-CEO and managing partner Egon Durban and Elliott Management partner Jesse Cohn were also added to Twitter’s board of directors. Dorsey left a fairly tall task on Parag’s desk, as Twitter said during its Analyst Day in February that its goals included reaching 315 million monetizable daily active users by the end of 2023, up from 211 million at the end of the third quarter of 2021, as well as doubling the company’s annual revenue in 2023. Agrawal said in a statement, "I look forward to building on everything we have accomplished under Jack's leadership, and I am incredibly energized by the opportunities ahead. By continuing to improve our execution, we will deliver tremendous value for our customers and shareholders as we reshape the future of public conversation.” He shared his note to employees in a tweet, saying in part, “We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right. But our critical challenge is how we work to execute against it and deliver results: That’s how we’ll make Twitter the best it can be for our customers, shareholders and for each of you. I want you to #LoveWhereYouWork and also love how we work together for the greatest possible impact.” https://twitter.com/paraga/status/1465349749607854083 Why Publishers’ Adoption of Twitter Blue Is About More Than the Money

C-Suite

Jack Dorsey Steps Down as Twitter CEO

CTO Parag Agrawal will succeed the co-founder

David Cohen

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David Cohen