Parag Agrawal

Former CEO of Twitter (born 1984) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parag Agrawal

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]

Quick Facts Born, Education ...
Parag Agrawal
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Agrawal in 2005
Born (1984-05-21) 21 May 1984 (age 40)
EducationIndian Institute of Technology, Bombay (BTech)
Stanford University (MS, PhD)
Known forFormer CEO, Twitter, Inc.
PredecessorJack Dorsey
SuccessorElon Musk[1]
SpouseVineeta Agarwala
Children2
Scientific career
ThesisIncorporating Uncertainty in Data Management and Integration (2012)
Doctoral advisorJennifer Widom
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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

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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

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