Twitter Deal: Who Is Parag Agrawal, Twitter's Short-Lived Desi CEO Fired By Elon Musk?

Around 11 months after he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Parag Agrawal was fired from his post after tech billionaire Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the social media platform on Thursday.  

Though Agrawal was appointed with fanfare as Twitter's CEO, and several Indians cheered his appointment, his short tenure was chaotic and challenging, as Twitter battled questions of free speech, regulations, content moderation, and had tense relations with governments. 

Agrawal's tenure came to an end after the deal for the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion was formally closed on Thursday. With him, several top executives were also let go, such as the Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety, according to reports. 

At the time of his appointment, Agrawal was believed to be central to the vision of Jack Dorsey for Twitter, the then CEO of Twitter. Here we explain who is Agrawal, what's his professional journey, and how he fared as the Twitter CEO.

Parag Agrawal's appointment as Twitter CEO

Agrawal was appointed as the CEO of Twitter in November 2021 after Dorsey stepped down. 

At the time of his appointment, Agrawal was serving as the Chief Technology Officer of Twitter. He had joined the company in 2011 when it had less than 1,000 employees.

It was also reported that Agrawal was central to Dorsey's vision for not just Twitter but the future of the social media. Agrawal had been closely involved with Dorsey over the years in the evolution of Twitter, reported CNBC at the time.

"Agrawal has been Dorsey’s closest partner in considering the future of the Twitter platform, and the two have a shared vision for decentralising social media," reported CNBC.

When Agrawal was appointed CEO, he joined a steadily growing club of executives from India rising to the top of global corporations, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Indra Nooyi had served as PepsiCo’s CEO for 12 years before stepping down in 2018. 

Who is Parag Agrawal, what's his professional journey?    

Parag Agrawal was born in Maharashtra, India to a teacher mother. His father was employed in the atomic energy sector, according to Business Standard. 

Agrawal did his schooling in Mumbai and completed his B Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) in 2005. He then moved to the United States where he eventually did PhD in computer ccience from Stanford University in California. He joined Twitter in 2011 while still doing PhD.

Before Twitter, Agrawal worked at AT&T Labs, Microsoft, and Yahoo, according to his LinkedIn.

Rising in Twitter, Agrawal became Twitter’s CTO in 2017. 

In 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 deep".

Dorsey 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. He's curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily," said Dorsey.

As for Agrawal's work at Twitter, CNBC reported, "Early in his tenure at the company, Agrawal began standing out as part of the advertising unit. He integrated machine learnings models into the ads and timeline products...In particular, Agrawal has been key in the creation of Project Bluesky, an open-source project that has tapped some notable crypto developers to build an open standard for social media. The aim is to create technology and protocols that would allow content posted on one service to work across multiple social networks, similar to how emails can be read using any provider." 

Parag Agrawal's turbulent Twitter CEO tenure

Agrawal’s time as Twitter CEO was challenging and turbulent. 

Just 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 filing.

"In the days that followed, Musk met with Twitter's board and some of its leadership team, including Agrawal; publicly announced that he'd become Twitter's largest shareholder; and accepted a seat on the company’s board," the CNN report said.

Musk tweeted a few days later that "Is Twitter dying?".

The CNN report added that according to a court filing in late September, Agrawal had texted Musk responding to his tweet.

He said, "You are free to tweet 'is Twitter dying?' or anything else about Twitter but it's my responsibility to tell you that it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current context. Next time we speak, I'd like you to provide (your) perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how [it’s] hurting our ability to do work...I'd like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don't get distracted, but we aren't there right now."

Musk had responded to Agrawal saying: "What did you get done this week?" In two follow-up texts, he rescinded his agreement to join the board, saying, "I'm not joining the board. This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private."

On Agrawal’s challenges to manage a "restive work force and deal with Twitter’s 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 "there’s no one in the world who would want to be in those shoes".

As the Musk saga unfolded, the NYT said in the May 2022 article that at a meeting for Twitter executives, Agrawal "admitted he was exhausted".

"At the meeting, Mr Agrawal was 'raw' about Twitter's issues and the hurricane of attention over Mr Musk’s 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," reported the NYT.

When 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 Dorsey’s "continued mentorship and your friendship".

He said, "While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me. I've walked in your shoes, I've seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter's incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us. Our 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 together.

"We 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 - that's how we'll make Twitter the best it can be for our customers, shareholders, and for each of you.

"The 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 today's news. It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it's a signal that the work we do here matters."

According 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 filings.

Parag Agrawal's family, personal life

Agrawal is married to Vineeta Agarwala, a physician and adjunct clinical professor at Stanford School of Medicine. They have two children. 

Vineeta is also a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital company. As per her LinkedIn profile, in the past, she was also associated with GV, earlier known as Google Ventures, a venture capital company.

(With PTI inputs)