Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of Twitter.
The 45-year-old businessman quit his role at the helm of the social media company, effective immediately, on Monday (29.11.21), and he will be replaced by Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer.
He said in a brief statement: “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders.”
Jack – who was also serving as CEO of digital payments company Square – will remain a member of the board until his term expires in 2022, and Salesforce President and COO Bret Taylor will become the chairman of the board, succeeding former Google executive Patrick Pichette, who will remain on the board as chair of the audit committee.
The executive admitted in an email he shared on Twitter that Parag had been his choice to take over “for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs.”
The new leader, who has been CTO since 2017 and with Twitter for over a decade – will be charged with meeting the company’s internal goals, with the microblogging site having set a target earlier this year to double its annual revenue in 2023 and to have 315 million monetisable daily active users by the end of that year.
Dorsey came close to being ousted last year after stakeholder Elliott Management raised questions about him being CEO of two companies, and called for him to step down from one before reaching a deal with Twitter’s management.
Elliot Management’s managing partner Jesse Cohn and senior portfolio manager Marc Steinberg said in a statement following the news of the executive’s departure: “Twitter is now executing against an ambitious multi-year plan to dramatically increase the company’s reach and value, and we look forward to the next chapter of Twitter’s story.
“Having gotten to know both incoming Chairman Bret Taylor and incoming CEO Parag Agrawal, we are confident that they are the right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.”
Jack co-founded Twitter in 2006 and served as CEO until 2008, before returning in 2015.