Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami in June.
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down. On Monday, the social network said Parag Agrawal, previously Twitter’s chief technology officer, will take over as CEO effective immediately.
In note to employees posted on Twitter on Monday, Dorsey said it was his decision to leave the company.
“I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead,” wrote Dorsey, adding that “I believe it’s critical a company can stand on it own, free of its founders’s influence or direction.”
Dorsey said he will remain on Twitter’s board through the end of his term in 2022 to help with the transition. The move, which was earlier reported by CNBC, was reportedly in the works since last year.
In addition to being the chief executive of Twitter, Dorsey is also the CEO of payments company Square. Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter, has been CEO of the social network since 2015, when he took over following the resignation of Dick Costolo. He also briefly served as Twitter’s first CEO in 2007.
In 2020, Dorsey managed to get through an effort from activist investor Elliott Management to oust him as Twitter CEO. One reason Elliott was reportedly pushing for the takeover was because Dorsey’s time is split between running two public companies.
Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has served as the company’s CTO since 2017. As CTO, he led the social network’s technical strategy and advanced the use of machine learning at Twitter, according to a release.
Agrawal followed up with his own note to employees on Monday, also shared on Twitter, highlighting the company’s opportunities ahead.
“We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right,” he wrote. “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.”
The company’s stock spiked following the news, but settled some to be up more than 3% at the time of this report. Trading of Twitter shares was then halted, according to CNBC.