Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Resigns

By Cameron Bonomolo

Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey is leaving the nest. On Monday, @jack and Twitter announced Dorsey has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer, making way for the Board of Directors to appoint Parag Agrawal as CEO and a member of the Board, effective immediately. Dorsey will remain a member of the Board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders. Twitter has named Bret Taylor the new Chairman of the Board, succeeding Patrick Pichette, who remains on the board as chair of the Audit Committee.

"I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter's CEO is deep," Dorsey said in a statement. "His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I'm deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It's his time to lead." 

Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006 and took over as CEO in 2015. In an email to Twitter employees labeled "Fly," Dorsey explained his decision to resign from the social media platform.

"There's a lot of talk about the importance of a company being 'founder-led.' Ultimately I believe that's severely limiting and a single point of failure," Dorsey writes in the email tweeted publicly by @jack. "I've worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders. There are 3 reasons I believe now is the right time."

See Dorsey's statement in full:

The first is Parag becoming our CEO. The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He's been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He's curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep. 

The second is Bret Taylor agreeing to become our board chair. I asked Bret to join our board when I became CEO, and he's been excellent in every way. He understands entrepreneurship, taking risks, companies at massive scale, technology, product, and he's an engineer. All of the things the board and the company deserve right now. Having Bret in this leadership role gives me a lot of confidence in the strength of our board going forward. You have no idea how happy this makes me!

The third is all of you. We have a lot of ambition and potential on this team. Consider this: Parag started here as an engineer who cared deeply about our work and now he's our CEO (I also had a similar path... he did it better!). This alone makes me proud. I know that Parag will be able to channel this energy best because he's lived it and knows what it takes. All of you have the potential to change the course of this company for the better. I believe this with all my heart!

Parag is CEO starting today. I'm going to serve on the board through my term (May-is) to help Parag and Bret with the transition. And after that... I'll leave the board. Why not stay or become chair? I believe it's really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead. And back to my previous point, I believe it's critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder's influence or direction.

I want you all to know that this was my decision and I own it. It was a tough one for me, of course. I love this service and company... and all of you so much. I'm really sad... yet really happy. There aren't many companies that get to this level. And there aren't many founders that choose their company over their own ego. I know we'll prove this was the right move. 

"On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Jack for his visionary leadership and unrelenting dedication to Twitter since its founding," said Twitter's incoming Independent Board Chair Bret Taylor. "Jack returned to Twitter and turned the Company around at the most critical time. The progress since then has been nothing short of incredible. Jack has given the world something invaluable and we will continue to carry it forward."

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