Did you know that Parag Agrawal has been at Twitter for the last 10 years and that he started as a humble engineer there?
Twitter is getting a new chief executive officer (CEO) as Jack Dorsey steps down from the role and hands the reins over to chief technology officer Parag Agrawal, Twitter announced on November 29.
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Agrawal will be taking over the company from Dorsey who co-founded Twitter in 2006, and who was instrumental in bringing the social media platform to where it is today.
Just recently, Dorsey oversaw the launch of new ways to create content through newsletters and audio conversations on the app.
Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires at the 2022 annual shareholder meeting while Agrawal’s appointment will take effect immediately, according to Twitter.
Agrawal’s appointment signals a tacit endorsement by the board of a strategy the company laid out recently to double its annual revenue by 2023.
After the announcement, Twitter shares surged nearly 10 per cent and closed down 2.7 per cent.
Agrawal, who was born in India, was a relatively obscure member of the United States tech giant for the 10 years that he was working at Twitter until he took over as chief technology officer in 2017.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about Twitter’s new top man.
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1. He was from Stanford University
Originally from Mumbai, India, Agrawal proved that he was smart beyond his years from the very start.
In 2001, he won a gold medal at the 2001 International Physics Olympiad held in Turkey. He then went on to place 77th in the Joint Entrance Exam.
Agrawal then received his undergraduate degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2005.
He later moved to the United States where he pursued a PhD in computer science from the prestigious Stanford University.