Why Low Profile Parag Agarwal Is Twitter's Pick After Jack Dorsey

Parag Agrawal, 37, was named on Monday to succeed co-founder Jack Dorsey after a four-year stint as CTO, a role where he oversaw Twitter's pursuit of blockchain and other decentralized technologies.

By naming Parag Agrawal as chief executive officer, Twitter Inc. is turning inward, choosing a low-profile technologist to steer a social network that has underperformed the market, haltingly introduced new products, and struggled to moderate harmful content under a leader long criticized for divided attention.

Agrawal, 37, was named on Monday to succeed co-founder Jack Dorsey after a four-year stint as CTO, a role where he oversaw Twitter's pursuit of blockchain and other decentralized technologies. Dorsey, 45, will remain on the board through the summer and will stay at the helm of Square Inc., the payments company he also co-founded.

While Dorsey is a billionaire celebrity with famous friends and millions of Twitter followers, Agrawal is still a relative unknown who has spent no time in the limelight at the controversial social media company. Dorsey's personal interests -- like music and Bitcoin -- often made an appearance in his posts, and eventually made their way onto the company's product road map, but he has fallen short of transforming the business since he took over for his second stint as CEO in 2015.

The company's new chief will inherit Twitter's political scuffles -- including criticism over its ban on former President Donald Trump as well as friction with India's ruling party. And he'll have to chase aggressive goals to step up user growth, double revenue and expedite product execution.