{"id":47066,"date":"2021-11-30T08:24:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T08:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47066"},"modified":"2021-11-30T08:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T08:24:06","slug":"twitters-new-ceo-is-latest-on-list-of-india-born-us-tech-honchos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47066","title":{"rendered":"Twitter\u2019s new CEO is latest on list of India-born US tech honchos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Parag Agrawal\u2019s appointment to the top spot at Twitter amplifies the role of immigrants in the world\u2019s top tech firms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

By\u00a0<\/span>Vlad Savov and Saritha Rai<\/span>Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Published On\u00a0<\/span>30 Nov 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Twitter Inc. on Monday became the latest Silicon Valley titan to appoint an Indian-born chief executive officer, joining the likes of Microsoft and Google in recognizing the Asian country as one of the world\u2019s richest pools of tech talent.<\/p>\n

The appointment of former Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal to the top spot at Twitter amplifies the role played by immigrants in the world\u2019s largest technology companies. He joins Satya Nadella of Microsoft Corp., Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Inc., Arvind Krishna of International Business Machines Corp. and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. among the highest-profile leaders of U.S. firms from Indian origin. Between them, that group of executives pilots companies with a combined market value nearing $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.<\/p>\n

Like his Valley compatriots, Agrawal comes from a technical background and worked his way up within the company. At age 37, he\u2019s the youngest CEO of any S&P 500 firm. Agrawal got his engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, which as the country\u2019s premier tech college has spawned generations of prominent politicians and corporate leaders, including Pichai and Krishna. He secured a foothold in Silicon Valley after moving onto Stanford University for his doctorate in computer science.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an Indian is a big advantage now, people expect us to be good engineers and good managers,\u201d said Vivek Wadhwa, a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and the author of a book profiling Nadella\u2019s rise at Microsoft. \u201cFrom what I know, Parag Agrawal shares Satya\u2019s values and has a similar management style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twitter co-founder and outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey endorsed Agrawal\u2019s technical capabilities as \u201ctransformational\u201d in his note upon stepping down. But it\u2019ll be the new leader\u2019s skill in navigating thorny issues like free speech, race relations and relationships with governments that will soon be tested.<\/p>\n

In a rare interview a year ago, Agrawal described Twitter\u2019s method of dealing with misinformation as \u201can increasingly nuanced approach with a range of interventions.\u201d Echoing Dorsey\u2019s long-held emphasis on trying to keep Twitter a neutral platform, he added that \u201cwe attempt to not adjudicate truth, we focus on potential for harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his country of birth, where Twitter has nearly 20 million users, Agrawal\u2019s company has come under attack from Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government on several fronts. The administration there has criticized its reluctance to take down messages of support for farmer protests and its handling of tweets by leaders on both sides of the political divide. Twitter serves a similar role in the domestic political discourse as it does in the U.S., with Modi\u2019s account alone having a following of 73 million.<\/p>\n

Elevating Agrawal will help, according to Wadhwa. \u201cJack\u2019s arrogance turned many governments off,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you note how Microsoft has not been the target of the left or right in the U.S., it is because of Satya and his ability to listen to criticism and maintain a balance. I expect that Agrawal will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, Agrawal has maintained a low profile and his experience has concentrated in product development and market research. He was named Twitter\u2019s first distinguished engineer for his role in helping boost audience growth and revenue before becoming CTO. Now CEO, he\u2019ll find navigating a friendlier course with India essential to expanding those goals of widening Twitter\u2019s reach. The country is already the biggest user base for Meta Platforms Inc.\u2019s WhatsApp with half a billion users, Alphabet\u2019s YouTube has nearly as big an audience and Twitter counts it among its fastest-growing markets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parag Agrawal\u2019s appointment to the top spot at Twitter amplifies the role of immigrants in the world\u2019s top tech firms.By\u00a0Vlad Savov and Saritha RaiBloombergPublished On\u00a030 Nov 2021Twitter Inc. on Monday became the latest Silicon Valley titan to appoint an Indian-born chief executive officer, joining the likes of Microsoft and Google in recognizing the Asian country…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}