Jack Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO
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Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and public face of Twitter, has announced he is stepping down as the company’s chief executive, effective immediately.
Dorsey will be replaced by Parag Agrawal, who has served as Twitter’s chief technology officer since 2017 and has been at the social media company since 2011.
The move ends Dorsey’s much criticized tenure as chief executive officer of both Twitter and Square, his digital payments company, which led Twitter stakeholders Elliot Management and billionaire investor Paul Singer to demand he step down from one of the roles.
After almost 16 years of having a role at our company .. I decided it’s finally time for me to leave.
Dorsey announced he was stepping down by tweeting out an email he sent Twitter staff announcing his resignation.
“After almost 16 years of having a role at our company… from co-founder to CEO to chair to exec chair to interim-CEO to CEO… I decided it’s finally time for me to leave,” Dorsey wrote.
“Why? 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 this company can break away from its founding and founders.”
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack (@jack) November 29, 2021
Twitter announced on Tuesday that Dorsey will be replaced by former-chief technology officer Parag Agrawal, who has been with the company for more than a decade.
“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 said.
While Dorsey will surrender his CEO position, he will remain on the board until Twitter’s stockholder meeting in 2022.
My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational.
Twitter also announced on Tuesday a new board chairman, Bret Taylor, to replace its existing chair, Patrick Pinchette, who will will remain on the board and continue to serve as chair of the audit committee.
“On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Jack for his visionary leadership and unrelenting dedication to Twitter since its founding,” Taylor said.
“Jack returned to Twitter and turned the Company around at the most critical time. The progress since then has been nothing short of incredible. Jack has given the world something invaluable and we will continue to carry it forward.”
Jack has given the world something invaluable and we will continue to carry it forward.
Dorsey, 45, co-founded the microblogging site in 2006 and posted the world’s first tweet: “Just setting up my twttr.”
He became CEO of Twitter in 2007 but left the role in 2008. He co-founded Square in 2009 before returning as CEO of Twitter in 2015.
He came under pressure from Elliot Management Corporation in early 2020 to step down from one of his roles, with the hedge fund arguing that Dorsey was paying too little attention to Twitter while also running Square.
His stakes in Twitter and Square have helped him amass a personal fortune exceeding US$12 billion, according to Forbes.
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