Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, stepped down as chief executive Monday, Nov. 29, the social media platform announced. Dorsey said he decided to leave because Twitter is “ready to move on from its founders.”
Parag Agrawal, chief technology officer, has been appointed by Twitter to replace Dorsey. Dorsey will stay on the board through the end of his term in the middle of next year to “help with the transition” before leaving entirely, he said. Bret Taylor, Salesforce’s president and chief operating officer, will become the new chair of the board.
In an email to staff, Dorsey said he had “bone deep” trust in his successor, who joined Twitter a decade ago as a software engineer and worked his way up. “I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead,” he said.
“There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being ‘founder-led.’ Ultimately I believe that’s severely limiting and a signal point of failure,” Dorsey said in an email to Twitter staff that he later posted on the platform. “There aren’t many founders who choose their company over their own ego.”
He added that he would totally leave the board once his term ends.
“Why not stay or become chair? I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead.”
The succession has been planned for over a year, said someone familiar with the process, as part of a truce between Twitter and the activist investor Elliott Management, which pushed for Dorsey’s removal.
“This has been in the works for a while. It was part of a long-held plan,” the source said. In a regulatory filing in November 2020, Twitter said that it had “updated the CEO succession plan in line with best practices.”
Elliot opened fire on Dorsey about two years ago, arguing that he was distracted by his other job as chief executive of payments at the company Square, and by his other interests, such as Bitcoin.
Twitter’s share price have jumped since rumors of Dorsey’s departure emerged. But, by mid-afternoon shares were trading just under their value at the end of last week.
Investment analyst at Interactive Investor, Victoria Scholar, said the development was not a surprise to Twitter’s board members “who have reportedly been preparing to say goodby to Dorsey since last year.”
“People tend to conflate Jack Dorsey with Twitter censorship, but my sense is he’s actually done what he could these past few years to keep the platform relatively open,” tweeted Mike Solana, head of the private equity firm Founders Fund.
In response to the news of Dorsey’s resignation, Elliot said the new management team were “the right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.”
