Parag Agrawal's 11-month tenure as Twitter CEO ends as Elon Musk takes control

When Parag Agrawal was appointed CEO of Twitter in November 2021 the IIT graduate joined a steadily growing club of executives from India rising to the top of global corporations but the 38yearold executives brief tenure at the helm of the social media giant was challenging and chaoticLess than a year into his job as CEO Indiaborn Agrawal was ousted from the company by its new owner billionaire Elon Musk who on Thursday closed the 44 billion dollar deal to acquire the social media behemothAn IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 when there were fewer than 1000 employees Rising in the company he became Twitters chief technology officer in 2017 Considered a protege of Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey Agrawal was appointed CEO of Twitter after Dorsey stepped downIn announcing his decision to step down and name Agrawal as CEO Dorsey had said at the time my trust in him as our CEO is bone deepAlso read Mild tremor recorded near Koyna dam in MaharashtraDorsey had said that Agrawal had been his choice for CEO for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around Hes curious probing rational creative demanding selfaware and humble He leads with heart and soul and is someone I learn from dailyAjmerborn Agrawals ascent to the top job at Twitter put him in a steadily growing club of executives hailing from India helming global corporations including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen Indra Nooyi had served as PepsiCos CEO for 12 years before stepping down in 2018According to a May 2022 article in The New York Times if Musk removed him as chief executive Agrawal could make USD 60 million as per securities filingsAgrawals time as Twitter CEO was challenging and turbulentJust a few months into the job as CEO Musk came into the picture A CNN Business report said that in March this year Musk had met with Dorsey to discuss the future direction of social media according to a company filingIn the days that followed Musk met with Twitters board and some of its leadership team including Agrawal publicly announced that hed become Twitters largest shareholder and accepted a seat on the companys board the CNN report saidMusk tweeted a few days later that Is Twitter dyingThe CNN report added that according to a court filing in late September Agrawal had texted Musk responding to his tweetYou are free to tweet is Twitter dying or anything else about Twitter Agrawal had said in the text to Musk but its my responsibility to tell you that its not helping me make Twitter better in the current context Next time we speak Id like you to provide your perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how its hurting our ability to do work Id like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and dont get distracted but we arent there right nowMusk had responded to Agrawal saying What did you get done this week In two followup texts he rescinded his agreement to join the board saying Im not joining the board This is a waste of timeHe added Will make an offer to take Twitter private according to the CNN articleOn Agrawals challenges to manage a restive work force and deal with Twitters mounting economic woes before likely being booted from the company The New York Times had quoted Bob Sutton an organisational psychologist and professor at Stanford University as saying that theres no one in the world who would want to be in those shoesThe NYT article said that as Twitters chief technology officer Agrawal worked on some of Twitters complicated technical challenges and built relationships with his engineering peers and DorseyHe shared Dorseys vision that Twitters future hinged on overhauling its technology so it could rely more on machine learning and decentralize its services to give users more control over their experiences on the platformAs the Musk saga unfolded the NYT said in the May 2022 article that at a virtual meeting for Twitter executives Agrawal admitted he was exhaustedAt the meeting Mr Agrawal was raw about Twitters issues and the hurricane of attention over Mr Musks deal two people with knowledge of the event said But he also conveyed a sense of acceptance of his situation and said he would move forward with his plans for the company they said the NYT report had saidWhen he was appointed CEO in 2021 Agrawal said in a note posted on Twitter that he was honoured and humbled on his appointment and expressed gratitude to Dorseys continued mentorship and your friendshipWhile it was a decade ago those days feel like yesterday to me Ive walked in your shoes Ive seen the ups and downs the challenges and obstacles the wins and the mistakes But then and now above all else I see Twitters incredible impact our continued progress and the exciting opportunities ahead of us he saidOur purpose has never been more important Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world There is no limit to what we can do togetherWe 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 thats how well make Twitter the best it can be for our customers shareholders and for each of youThe world is watching us right now even more than they have before Lots of people are going to have lots of different views and opinions about todays news It is because they care about Twitter and our future and its a signal that the work we do here matters Agrawal said in his note last yearAgrawal is married to Vineeta Agarwala a physician and adjunct clinical professor at Stanford Medicine They have two childrenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday 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