Parag Agrawal, an IIT Bombay graduate, would take over after Jack Dorsey.
New Delhi:
Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal, 37, joins a growing club of Indians heading global tech giants. Almost all prominent tech companies are headed by Indians, especially IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) alums and the list was widely shared on social media.
Indian CEOs won hearty applause on Twitter soon after it was revealed that Parag Agrawal, an IIT Bombay graduate, would take over after Jack Dorsey.
One of the first to put it out was Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.
“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. (Congrats, @paraga!),” Mr Collison tweeted.
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. ???????????????? (Congrats, @paraga!)
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) November 29, 2021
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacted to the tweet, saying: “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!”
USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2021
Industrialist Anand Mahindra also replied to the tweet, coming up with the phrase “Indian CEO virus”.
“This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it,” Anand Mahindra tweeted with a smiley.
This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it. ???? https://t.co/Dl28r7nu0u
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 29, 2021
Gautam Adani called it a great moment for India’s “depth of talent” and noted the rise of yet another Indian in the digital world.
Another great moment for India’s depth of talent and USA’s meritocracy system. Congrats @paraga on your unanimous selection as CEO. You will do @Twitter & @jack proud. After Microsoft, Google, IBM, Adobe, Flex, VMware and more, yet another Indian rises to lead the digital world. https://t.co/KmVbzHlAma
— Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) November 30, 2021
Mr Adani also shared Parag Agrawal’s first email to Twitter employees after becoming CEO.
Parag Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) before this.
After studying at IIT-Bombay, he went on to complete his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University.
Before him, the two best known Indians in the tech world were Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Mr Pichai, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate, took over as Google CEO in 2015 and became the CEO of its parent company Alphabet in 2019.
Satya Nadella studied in the Manipal Institute of Technology before going to Stanford and Wharton.
Other Indians at the helm of big tech are Arvind Krishna (IBM), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) and Raghu Raghuram (VMWare), Twitter pointed out.
What do MicroSoft, Google, Adobe, IBM, Micron, Master Card and now Twitter have in common?
All are led by CEOs who grew up in India!
Congratulations to @paraga who’s been chosen as the CEO of Twitter
— KTR (@KTRTRS) November 30, 2021
Indian Origin Parag Agrawal to take over as CEO of Twitter.
And now:
Twitter- Parag Agarwal
Google – Sundar Pichai
Microsoft – Satya Nadella
IBM – Arvind Krishna
Adobe- Shantanu Narayen
VMWare – Raghu Raghuram pic.twitter.com/zItL2C96Bn— Awanish Sharan (@AwanishSharan) November 30, 2021
Flash memory storage company SanDisk and security firm Palo Alto Networks are also headed by Indians. Shantanu Narayen took over as Adobe CEO in 2007.
Nikesh Arora is the CEO of Palo Alto Networks.
