Jack Dorsey is no longer the CEO of Twitter. Starting today, that title goes to Parag Agrawal, formerly the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Dorsey explained the reasoning for his departure in an email sent to employees and later shared on Twitter:
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021
Agrawal provided his own response:
Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future. Here’s the note I sent to the company. Thank you all for your trust and support 💙 https://t.co/eNatG1dqH6pic.twitter.com/liJmTbpYs1
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) November 29, 2021
Meanwhile Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce, is becoming chair of the board. He replaces Patrick Pichette, who will remain as a member of the board.
In short, Dorsey, who is also one of Twitter’s co-founders, explains that he believes “it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.”
Unlike many other instances of CEOs stepping down from their positions, Dorsey isn’t planning on staying on the company’s board either, saying he wants to give Parag the space he needs to lead. He’ll remain on the board to help the transition until the end of his term in ‘May-ish,’ after which he’ll… do something else, presumably. He is still CEO of payments company Square, after all.
In fact, Dorsey has often been criticized for splitting his time between the two companies. In 2020, activist investor Elliot Management tried to oust Dorsey. Paul Singer, Elliot Mangement’s CEO, had voiced concerns over whether Dorsey’s split attention was inhibiting his leadership at Twitter.
Fun fact: this isn’t Dorsey’s first time stepping down as CEO either; he was fired by the board in 2008. That time, however, Dorsey did remain on the board, and Twitter went through a series of leadership changes until Dorsey’s return in 2015. This time, it seems he is leaving the company for good.