Parag Agrawal

Former CEO of Twitter (2021–2022) and longtime CTO; an IIT Bombay and Stanford engineer who ran the platform through Elon Musk’s takeover, was fired the day the deal closed, and now builds web infrastructure for AI agents at Parallel Web Systems.

Parag Agrawal (b. 1984, Ajmer, India) is a computer scientist — IIT Bombay B.Tech, Stanford PhD under Jennifer Widom — who joined Twitter in 2011, rose to Chief Technology Officer in 2017, and was named CEO in November 2021 when Jack Dorsey stepped down. His ~11-month tenure was consumed by Elon Musk’s $44B acquisition; Musk fired him on the day the deal closed in October 2022. Agrawal later co-founded Parallel Web Systems, building search/research infrastructure for AI agents.

Notable achievements

• Gold medal, International Physics Olympiad (2001); B.Tech CSE, IIT Bombay (2005); PhD in computer science, Stanford.
• Joined Twitter in 2011; rose to Chief Technology Officer in 2017, leading machine-learning and timeline-relevance work.
• Named CEO of Twitter on 29 November 2021 by unanimous board vote when Jack Dorsey stepped down.
• Led Twitter through Elon Musk’s $44B acquisition; fired on closing day, 27 October 2022 (~11-month tenure).
• Founded Parallel Web Systems (2023), building web infrastructure for AI agents, later valued in the billions.

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