Jack Dorsey, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, in a sudden move on Monday announced his resignation as CEO with immediate effect. He announced his resignation in a statement on Monday, after 16 years of co-founding Twitter. He offered in the statement: “After almost 16 years of having a role at our company…from co-founder to CEO to Chair to Exec Chair to interim-CEO to CEO…I decided it’s finally time for me to leave.
Why? “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. I’ve worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders. There are three reasons I believe now is the right time. “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 him 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 (1 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.
