Jack Dorsey hailed Parag Agarwal’s technical abilities as “transformative”. (file)
Twitter Inc on Monday became the latest Silicon Valley titan to appoint an Indian-origin chief executive, joining the likes of Microsoft and Google in recognizing the Asian country as one of the world’s richest pools of tech talent. Gaya.
The appointment of former chief technology officer Parag Agarwal to the top position on Twitter enhances the role played by immigrants at the world’s largest technology companies. He joins Microsoft Corp’s Satya Nadella, Adobe Inc.’s Shantanu Narain, International Business Machines Corp’s Arvind Krishna and Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai among the highest-profile leaders of Indian-American firms. Between them, that group of executives operates companies with a combined market value of $5 trillion. Outside of tech, Indra Nooyi led PepsiCo Inc. for 12 years and Ajay Banga is executive chairman of Mastercard Inc. after a decade as CEO.
Like his Wally compatriots, Mr. Agarwal comes from a technical background and has worked his way up within the company. At 37 years old, he is the youngest CEO of any S&P 500 firm. Mr. Agarwal received his engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, which has given birth to generations of prominent politicians and corporate leaders, including Mr. Pichai and Mr. Krishna, as the country’s premier technical college. He set foot in Silicon Valley after attending Stanford University for a doctorate in computer science.
Twitter co-founder and outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey in his note on stepping down endorsed Mr. Agarwal’s technical abilities as “transformative”. But it will be the skills of the new leader that will soon be tested in navigating thorny issues such as free speech, race relations and relations with governments.
In a rare interview a year ago, Mr Agarwal described Twitter’s way of dealing with misinformation as “an increasingly nuanced approach with a series of interventions”. Echoing Dorsey’s longstanding emphasis on trying to keep Twitter a neutral platform, he said that “we try not to judge the truth, we focus on the potential for harm.”
In the country of his birth, where Twitter has nearly 20 million users, Mr Agarwal’s company has been criticized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on several fronts. The administration there has criticized its reluctance to handle messages of support for farmer protests and tweets by leaders from both sides of the political divide. Twitter plays the same role in domestic political discourse as it does in the US, PM Modi’s account alone has 73 million followers.
According to Wadhwa, raising Mr. Agarwal will help. “Jack’s arrogance shut down many governments,” he said. “If you notice how Microsoft hasn’t been a target of the left or the right in America, it’s because of the truth and their ability to listen to criticism and strike a balance. I hope Mr. Agarwal does the same.”
Till date, Mr. Agarwal has maintained a low profile and his experience is concentrated in product development and market research. He was named Twitter’s first Distinguished Engineer for his role in driving audience growth and revenue prior to becoming CTO. Now CEO, he will find it necessary to navigate a friendly course with India to expand those goals of broadening Twitter’s reach. The country is already the largest user base for Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp with half a billion users, Alphabet’s YouTube has almost as large an audience, and Twitter counts it among its fastest-growing markets.
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