- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
WITH the elevation of Parag Agrawal as the next chief executive officer (CEO) of social media giant Twitter, the number of Indian-origin executives leading US-based global multinationals has grown.
Twitter’s outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey on Monday (29) announced that Agrawal, 37, an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Stanford University, will be his successor. The Indian-born Agrawal, who is known to be deeply trusted by Dorsey, will receive an annual salary of $1 million (£754,705) besides the bonuses, restricted and performance-based stock units, a report in The New York Times said. Agrawal had joined Twitter 10 years ago when the company had fewer than 1,000 employees.
ALSO READ: Indian-origin Parag Agrawal becomes Twitter CEO
Agrawal’s ascension to the top post puts him in the expanding league of Indian-origin executives leading the global multinationals.
In January 2020, Arvind Krishna, 59, was named the CEO of US-based IT giant IBM after a “world-class succession process”, succeeding Virginia Rometty, who had called his successor as the “right CEO for the next era at IBM” and “well-positioned” to lead the company into the cloud and cognitive era.
In August 2015, Sundar Pichai was named the CEO of the newly organised Google, becoming only the third chief executive of the giant after former CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page. In December 2019, he became the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet.
Pichai wished Dorsey “the very best ahead” and congratulated Agrawal and board chair Bret Taylor, saying he is “excited for Twitter’s future!”
In February 2014, Microsoft veteran Satya Nadella became the CEO of the technology giant.
Among other Indian-origin executives who have helmed multinational giants are MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday (29) lauded Indian talent in America after Agrawal was appointed as Twitter chief.
Replying to Stripe CEO Patrick Collison’s tweet, “Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants,” he said, “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!”
USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2021
