Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to take 'a few weeks' of paternity leave. 'We have your back,' say staff

Parag Agrawal succeeded Jack Dorsey as CEO of social microblogging website Twitter in late November 2021.

Parag Agrawal, the new CEO of Twitter Inc, is preparing to take “a few weeks” of parental leave to welcome his second child, The Washington Post reported. He was appointed to the top role at the social media giant less than three months ago.

Indian-origin Agrawal is also the executive chair of Twitter Parents, the company’s internal group for employees who are parents. His decision to go on paternity leave has been welcomed by his employees.

“It’s amazing to work at a company where the executives lead by example and take the generous Parental Leave given to all employees. Congrats to Twitter Parents Executive Chair, @paraga, on this exciting news,” the Twitter Parents group tweeted.

It’s amazing to work at a company where the executives lead by example and take the generous Parental Leave given to all employees

Congrats to Twitter Parents Executive Chair, ⁦@paraga⁩, on this exciting news! #LoveWhereYouWork #WatchUsWingIt https://t.co/GCLuyNpxKb

— Twitter Parents (@TwitterParents) February 16, 2022

Thank you @paraga for leading by example and taking paternity leave. I wish leaders did this when I was early in my career and becoming a father. We have 7500 people @twitter who have your back! https://t.co/MzDEtwCxOL

— Ned Segal (@nedsegal) February 16, 2022

Proud to have @paraga and Twitter leading the way, ensuring ALL parents are able to take advantage of this most special time for their families. https://t.co/OEplkf7Pzk

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— Brenden Lee (@brenden3lee) February 16, 2022

I’m proud to work in a company where the CEO takes time off for his family when he needs to and leads by example for the rest and @paraga is also a sponsor of @TwitterParents. It’s 2021 — normalise parental leave for dads and mums! https://t.co/bsn6YDS9ZE

— Shilpa  (@shilpakannan) February 16, 2022

Mumbai-born Parag Agrawal, 37, holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from IIT-Bombay.

With the Twitter top job after the company’s founder Jack Dorsey quit the company, a, Agrawal joined the league of India-born talent to be tapped to lead a major US tech firm, following the likes of Google-parent Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. While Shantanu Narayen is the CEO of Adobe, Arvind Krishna leads IBM. Nikesh Arora is the CEO and chairman of Palo Alto Networks.

Agrawal’s appointment was a cause of huge celebrations on the Indian internet, with people talking about how yet another Indian-origin person has gone on to lead a global tech company. He had joined Twitter 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees.

A report in The New York Times said Agrawal will receive an annual salary of $1 million, in addition to bonuses, restricted stock units and performance-based stock units.