Who is Parag Agrawal? New Twitter CEO's journey from Mumbai to California, in 5 points

Indian Twitter is full of praise and pride as Twitter announced the appointment of Indian-American Parag Agrawal as its new CEO. He will be replacing founder Jack Dorsey, who is set to leave the company he founded altogether.

Twitterati all over the world couldn’t help but notice the new wave of Indian-Americans running global tech giants – from Microsoft’s Satya Nadella to Google’s Sundar Pichai.

Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. ???? (Congrats, @paraga!)

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) November 29, 2021

This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it. ? https://t.co/Dl28r7nu0u

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 29, 2021

But amid all the praise, some pointed out the problem of brain drain in India.

All those of my generation who grew up writing essays against brain drain are happily tweeting on #ParagAgrawal and other Indian CEOs of US companies ?

— Arun Bothra ?? (@arunbothra) November 30, 2021

Serious question: why do some of our brightest come into their own in foreign lands? And if we are such a superb IT country then why didn’t we ever create a @Google or a @Twitter ? What’s missing? Do we castigate failure or something else?

— SUHEL SETH (@Suhelseth) November 29, 2021

1. WHO IS PARAG AGRAWAL?

IITians, especially those from Bombay, are likely thumping their chest after it was revealed that Parag Agrawal graduated from the elite engineering institute in India. Indians also searched for his IIT-JEE rank. To answer that question, he secured the 77th rank. He is also a childhood friend of playback singer Shreya Ghoshal, which Twitter found out in a fraction of a second after the announcement.

Congrats @paraga So proud of you!! Big day for us, celebrating this news♥️♥️♥️ https://t.co/PxRBGQ29q4

— Shreya Ghoshal (@shreyaghoshal) November 29, 2021

Parag went to the US in 2005 to pursue higher studies and joined Twitter in 2011, when he was still working on his PhD at Stanford.

However, Agrawal was little known before the announcement. He acknowledged the same in a message on Twitter.

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/eNatG1dqH6 pic.twitter.com/liJmTbpYs1

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) November 29, 2021

Agrawal’s appointment came as a surprise to many at Silicon Valley, who knew little about the engineer. However, Agrawal is reportedly quite close to Jack Dorsey. The Twitter co-founder in his goodbye message said he trusted Agrawal to the bone.

2. A DECADE AT TWITTER

Parag Agrawal has been at Twitter since the past 10 years and been part of several high-profile projects. He had been serving as the Chief Technology Officer since 2017. He is credited for helming the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Twitter.

If your Twitter timeline today is more relevant to your interests, then part of the credit goes to Parag Agrawal. He and his team also helped raise Twitter revenues using targeted ads.

https://t.co/9FZR0y2wRG pic.twitter.com/aQIyunUpSG

— Twitter Engineering (@TwitterEng) September 10, 2021

Before becoming the CTO, he was part of the Twitter Architecture Group or TAG, a group of top engineers reviewing the company’s new products.

Jack Dorsey also trusted Parag Agrawal to oversee the Bluesky project, an independent research project funded by Twitter to make the social media platform more decentralised.

3. A ‘SAFE PICK’

Research analyst Angelo Zino of US-based research firm CFRA wrote that Agrawal is a ‘safe pick’ for Twitter’s investors, the Guardian reported. Most notably, Twitter shareholder Elliot Management had almost kicked out Jack Dorsey from his position last year. The investment firm’s billionaire founder Paul Singer had been reportedly pressuring Dorsey to step down.

This is likely to mean that there won’t much of a policy change at Twitter under Agrawal. However, the newly appointed CEO has a mountain of challenges coming his way.

4. OBSTACLES AHEAD

Parag Agrawal has his task cut out as Twitter CEO. The company has been struggling to meet its aggressive internal goals, which include doubling its annual revenue and increasing active users to 315 million by 2023.

Twitter has been criticised for its slow pace of churning out new products and features to its 211 million users. The micro-blogging platform, though a favourite of several high-profile personalities, is increasingly losing younger users to Instagram and TikTok.

5. CONTROVERSY

Parag Agrawal may have a high-profile title now, but he also has a high-pressure and politically volatile job. He’s already at the centre of a controversy – brewing on Twitter (where else?!) - involving a few old tweets. Conservatives and right-wing trolls managed to pull out an old tweet by Parag Agrawal where he’s quoting from a Daily Show episode.

New CEO of Twitter Parag Agrawal @paraga pic.twitter.com/xL5askCPDf

— Ritu (@greenysoulin) November 29, 2021

Our government wants #Twitter to police defamation on social media with a CEO who said this#Twitter #JackDorsey #ParagAgrawal @ScottMorrisonMP pic.twitter.com/xCI6iFx7z3

— Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) November 30, 2021

Twitter and India have not been on great terms either. Twitter had managed to irk the Indian government when it flagged the tweets of some of the ruling party's leaders.

Twitter also revealed that Indian government had the second-largest number of requests to take down tweets of verified journalists and news organisations last year.

Twitter is currently playing the balancing act on assuring free speech, while also taking action against hate speech on its platform. How Parag Agrawal handles this politically charged global platform needs to be seen.