In Brief:
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey resigned on Monday.
- Dorsey believes that the company was “ready to move on from its founders.”
- Parag Agrawal was immediately appointed in place of Dorsey.
On Monday morning, Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, resigned, stating his opinion that the company was “ready to move on from its founders.”
Dorsey announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter, which he helped co-found in 2006, in a Monday tweet to his 5.9 million followers.
He stated that Twitter’s board of directors has named Parag Agrawal, the company’s chief technical officer and a board member, to succeed Dorsey “effective immediately.” Dorsey said his decision to stand aside was influenced by the board’s support of Agrawal, board member Bret Taylor’s agreement to take over as chair, and possibilities for other Twitter employees to advance.
This decision would help him to have more time to devote to Square, the payments business he co-founded and now manages, as well as his growing interest in cryptocurrency.
“I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead,” Jack Dorsey said. He expressed his mixed feelings by stating, “I love this service and company…and all of you so much. I’m really sad…yet really happy.”
He further expressed his concern by saying, “I believe it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.”
Previously, last year, Twitter shareholder Elliott Management pushed to replace Dorsey as CEO owing to concerns about his ability to run two publicly traded firms, according to CNBC. Elliott and Twitter eventually came to an agreement that Dorsey would continue in both capacities.
In support of bitcoin, Dorsey stated at a mega conference in Miami in June saying, “if I were not at Square or Twitter, I’d be working on #bitcoin.”
Earlier, Square’s Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange White Paper was released by Jack Dorsey to make it easy for users to transfer their falling fiat currency into rising bitcoin.
