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Why did Twitter pick Agrawal for their CEO. I hadn't read anything about him before Mudge's revelations and every single thing I've read since has not been kind

Why did Twitter pick Agrawal for their CEO. I hadn't read anything about him before Mudge's revelations and every single thing I've read since has not been kind to him. He seems to be doing a really bad job navigating this event and nobody appears to have any respect for the guy. But you don't get to be CEO of a company the size of Twitter if you are this bad at managing. So, what's going on?

googlryas 4y ago
I've wondered the same thing. He had one of the most epic upward trajectories of anyone ever going from rank and file to CEO of a multibillion dollar company. Did he even have any other job on his resume? I assume he has some connections that let him shoot up through the ranks. I think his wife is a general partner at a16z, maybe that has something to do with it? But a lot of people fit that bill who might want to get their bestie listed as CEO
programmarchy 4y ago
Maybe Jack saw a shitstorm on the horizon, and Agrawal was naive or willing enough to become the patsy?
- pclmulqdq 4y ago
  Maybe every other possible executive at the company knew how to read the tea leaves? A lot of people don't want to be company CEOs because it's a lot more visible and higher-pressure than merely being CXO or SVP of X.
  - shaburn 4y ago
    Also can carry serious criminal liability via Enron Response Regulation Sarbanes Oxley "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires the CEO and CFO of publicly traded companies to issue a statement certifying that the accompanying financial statements and disclosures fairly present, in all material respects, the operations and financial condition of the company."
    - vlovich123 4y ago
      Has that ever come up in practice, particularly for a company the size of Twitter?
      - shaburn 4y ago
        No. We've had a generation of tech companies with Unparalleled relative lobbying power in DC rewrite the rules in Non-GAAP accounting. The pendulum swings both far and fast.
- ginger2016 4y ago
  He runs the company himself without any interference from Jack, how is he a patsy?
  - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
    That separation is what we call "plausible deniability."
- phendrenad2 4y ago
  "How did person C get this position? Oh he's just a fall guy for person D." will start to be believable to me when I see it happen in the real world at least once. So far it's only something I've seen in Game of Thrones and Japanese Animes.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- voxadam 4y ago
  So, Big Head is running Twitter?
laweijfmvo 4y ago
His LinkedIn "Experience" sure is unusual; seems like he basically held a few internships until joining Twitter as an engineer. 10 years later, he's CEO.
typeofhuman 4y ago
He's Indian. Just like all the other tech companies that put Indian's in charge, it's to get more access to India. The next billion users.
throwaway742 4y ago
Reminds me of when GM got their first woman CEO right ahead of a massive scandal.
SilverBirch 4y ago
To be honest this whole thing seems overblown to me, Zatko is complaining that the board weren't aware that Twitter had massive security holes. There is one small problem with this accusation. Twitter's board hired famous ethical hacker Mudge to tackle their security issues. Maybe Zatko will eviscerate Mudge's failings under oath, but that doesn't get you very far since Zatko is Mudge*.
- criddell 4y ago
  Zatko was hired by the CEO (Dorsey) and reported to the CEO and CTO, not the board. Zatko says an inaccurate and misleading security report was going to be made to the board at their Dec 9/21 meeting and he was able to stop it. Agrawal let the report go to the board's Risk Committee a week later. Zatko then reported that the Risk Committee meeting report was fraudulent (because of the inaccuracies?) and was fired two weeks later. Twitter then paid him $7 million to shut up but an NDA can't block an SEC whistleblower complaint. I took all that information from this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/twitter-whistleblower-sec-spam/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/t...
  - SilverBirch 4y ago
    Yes, but if you read his complaint, he makes clear direct statements that Agrawal lied about things that are clearly jdugement calls, so he's already established himself as over-reaching. It's also worth noting $7m is not a big severence for this kind of departure - Swisher weighed in on this and her reaction to 7m was "that's not a big severence for this sort of thing", let alone to cover up wrongdoing.

googlryas 4y ago

I've wondered the same thing. He had one of the most epic upward trajectories of anyone ever going from rank and file to CEO of a multibillion dollar company. Did he even have any other job on his resume? I assume he has some connections that let him shoot up through the ranks. I think his wife is a general partner at a16z, maybe that has something to do with it? But a lot of people fit that bill who might want to get their bestie listed as CEO

programmarchy 4y ago

Maybe Jack saw a shitstorm on the horizon, and Agrawal was naive or willing enough to become the patsy?

pclmulqdq 4y ago
Maybe every other possible executive at the company knew how to read the tea leaves? A lot of people don't want to be company CEOs because it's a lot more visible and higher-pressure than merely being CXO or SVP of X.
- shaburn 4y ago
  Also can carry serious criminal liability via Enron Response Regulation Sarbanes Oxley "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires the CEO and CFO of publicly traded companies to issue a statement certifying that the accompanying financial statements and disclosures fairly present, in all material respects, the operations and financial condition of the company."
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    Has that ever come up in practice, particularly for a company the size of Twitter?
    - shaburn 4y ago
      No. We've had a generation of tech companies with Unparalleled relative lobbying power in DC rewrite the rules in Non-GAAP accounting. The pendulum swings both far and fast.
ginger2016 4y ago
He runs the company himself without any interference from Jack, how is he a patsy?
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
  That separation is what we call "plausible deniability."
phendrenad2 4y ago
"How did person C get this position? Oh he's just a fall guy for person D." will start to be believable to me when I see it happen in the real world at least once. So far it's only something I've seen in Game of Thrones and Japanese Animes.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
voxadam 4y ago
So, Big Head is running Twitter?

laweijfmvo 4y ago

His LinkedIn "Experience" sure is unusual; seems like he basically held a few internships until joining Twitter as an engineer. 10 years later, he's CEO.

typeofhuman 4y ago

He's Indian. Just like all the other tech companies that put Indian's in charge, it's to get more access to India. The next billion users.

throwaway742 4y ago

Reminds me of when GM got their first woman CEO right ahead of a massive scandal.

SilverBirch 4y ago

To be honest this whole thing seems overblown to me, Zatko is complaining that the board weren't aware that Twitter had massive security holes. There is one small problem with this accusation. Twitter's board hired famous ethical hacker Mudge to tackle their security issues. Maybe Zatko will eviscerate Mudge's failings under oath, but that doesn't get you very far since Zatko is Mudge*.

criddell 4y ago
Zatko was hired by the CEO (Dorsey) and reported to the CEO and CTO, not the board. Zatko says an inaccurate and misleading security report was going to be made to the board at their Dec 9/21 meeting and he was able to stop it. Agrawal let the report go to the board's Risk Committee a week later. Zatko then reported that the Risk Committee meeting report was fraudulent (because of the inaccuracies?) and was fired two weeks later. Twitter then paid him $7 million to shut up but an NDA can't block an SEC whistleblower complaint. I took all that information from this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/twitter-whistleblower-sec-spam/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/t...
- SilverBirch 4y ago
  Yes, but if you read his complaint, he makes clear direct statements that Agrawal lied about things that are clearly jdugement calls, so he's already established himself as over-reaching. It's also worth noting $7m is not a big severence for this kind of departure - Swisher weighed in on this and her reaction to 7m was "that's not a big severence for this sort of thing", let alone to cover up wrongdoing.