Jack Dorsey is stepping down as Twitter CEO and will be replaced by CTO Parag Agrawal.
“The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag,” Dorsey says in a statement he emailed to staff and posted to his Twitter account. “He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs.
“My trust in him is bone deep,” Dorsey adds. Agrawal starts immediately, and Dorsey will remain on the Twitter board until the end of his term (“May-ish”); he’s relinquishing that role too “to give Parag the space he needs to lead.”
Current board member Bret Taylor will become board chair.
Dorsey says his resignation “was my decision and I own it,” though he acknowledges it “was a tough one for me.” Having a company be founder-led is “severely limiting and a single point of failure,” he argues. “I’ve worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and its founders.”
Dorsey notes that Agrawal “started here as an engineer who cared deeply about our work and now he’s CEO…this alone makes me proud.”
In a tweet of his own, Agrawal writes that he has “deep gratitude for [Dorsey] and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future…Thank you all for your trust and support.”
The news was first reported by CNBC. Dorsey is also CEO of digital payments company Square.
This isn’t the first time Dorsey has left the Twitter CEO role. The last time was in 2008 when Evan Williams took over, but Dorsey returned to the role in 2015 when Dick Costolo stepped down. Last year, Elliott Management Corporation acquired a stake in Twitter followed by company founder Paul Singer calling for Dorsey to step down as CEO of either Twitter or Square. In the end, a deal was reached and Dorsey continued in both roles.
