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Parag Agrawal
Parag Agrawal in 2005.jpg
Agrawal in 2005
Born (1984-05-21) May 21, 1984 (age 40)
Education Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (BTech)
Stanford University (MS, PhD)
Known for Former CEO, Twitter, Inc.
Predecessor Jack Dorsey
Successor Elon Musk
Spouse(s) Vineeta Agarwala
Children 2
Scientific career
Thesis Incorporating Uncertainty in Data Management and Integration (2012)
Doctoral advisor Jennifer Widom

Parag Agrawal (Hindi pronunciation: [pəˈɾaːɡ əɡɾəˈʋaːl]; born May 21, 1984) is an Indian-American software engineer and businessman who was the CEO of Twitter, Inc. from November 2021 to October 2022.

Early life and education

Agrawal was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan. His father was a senior official in the Indian Department of Atomic Energy and his mother is a retired Economics professor from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai.

In 2001, he completed his final year of higher secondary education at Atomic Energy Junior College, Mumbai. In the same year, he secured a gold medal in the International Physics Olympiad held in Antalya, Turkey.

In 2005, Agrawal obtained his Bachelor of Technology degree in computer science and engineering from IIT Bombay. That year, he moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in computer science at Stanford University under the guidance of Jennifer Widom. His Stanford doctoral thesis, published in 2012, is titled "Incorporating Uncertainty in Data Management and Integration".

Career

Agrawal held research internships at Microsoft Research and Yahoo! Research before joining Twitter as a software engineer in 2011. In October 2017, Twitter announced the appointment of Agrawal as chief technology officer following the departure of Adam Messinger. In December 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Agrawal would be in charge of Project Bluesky, an initiative to develop a decentralized social network protocol.

In an interview discussing the rise of misinformation on Twitter with MIT Technology Review in November 2020, while still Twitter CTO, when asked about freedom of speech regarding Twitter, Agrawal said: "Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation ... [and to] focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed."

On November 29, 2021, Dorsey announced that he was resigning as CEO of Twitter and that Agrawal was replacing him immediately. As CEO, Agrawal was awarded annual compensation of $1 million as well as stock compensation worth $12.5 million. Agrawal was fired as CEO once Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the company on October 27, 2022.

Post-Twitter, Agrawal founded an artificial intelligence startup aimed at developing software for large language models (LLMs). The company received $30 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, and First Round Capital.

Personal life

Agrawal is married to Vineeta Agarwala, general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where she focuses on investments in biotech and health tech. They have two children, and reside in San Francisco.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Parag Agrawal para niños

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