Parag Agrawal
Former CEO of Twitter (born 1984) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parag Agrawal (Hindi pronunciation: [pəˈɾaːɡ əɡɾəˈʋaːl]; born 21 May 1984)[2] is an Indian-born American software engineer and businessman who was the CEO of Twitter, Inc. from November 2021 to October 2022.[3]
Parag Agrawal | |
|---|---|
Agrawal in 2005 | |
| Born | 21 May 1984 |
| Education | Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (BTech) Stanford University (MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Former CEO, Twitter, Inc. |
| Predecessor | Jack Dorsey |
| Successor | Elon Musk[1] |
| Spouse | Vineeta Agarwala |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Incorporating Uncertainty in Data Management and Integration (2012) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jennifer Widom |
Early life and education
Agrawal was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan.[4][5] His father was a senior official in the Indian Department of Atomic Energy and his mother is a retired Economics professor from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai.[6]
He completed his Secondary Schooling at Atomic Energy Central School No.4 and in 2001, he completed his HSC at Atomic Energy Junior College, Mumbai.[7] In the same year, he secured a gold medal in the International Physics Olympiad held in Antalya, Turkey.[8][9]
In 2005, Agrawal obtained his BTech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay.[10] That year, he moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in computer science at Stanford University under the guidance of Jennifer Widom.[11][12][13] His Stanford doctoral thesis, published in 2012, is titled "Incorporating Uncertainty in Data Management and Integration".[14][15]
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Agrawal held research internships at Microsoft Research and Yahoo! Research before joining Twitter as a software engineer in 2011.[16] In October 2017, Twitter announced the appointment of Agrawal as chief technology officer following the departure of Adam Messinger.[17] In December 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Agrawal would be in charge of Project Bluesky, an initiative to develop a decentralized social network protocol which later became the Bluesky social media app and accompanying AT Protocol.[18]
In an interview discussing the rise of misinformation on Twitter with MIT Technology Review in November 2020, while still Twitter CTO, when asked about freedom of speech regarding Twitter, Agrawal said: "Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation ... [and to] focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed."[19]
On November 29, 2021, Dorsey announced that he was resigning as CEO of Twitter and that Agrawal was replacing him immediately.[20][21][22] As CEO, Agrawal was awarded annual compensation of $1 million as well as stock compensation worth $12.5 million.[11] Agrawal was fired as CEO once Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the company on October 27, 2022.[23][24]
Post-Twitter, Agrawal founded an artificial intelligence startup aimed at developing software for large language models (LLMs). The company received $30 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, and First Round Capital.[25]
Personal life
Agrawal is married to Vineeta Agarwala,[26] general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where she focuses on investments in biotech and health tech.[27] They have two children,[28] and reside in San Francisco.[26]
References
External links
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