Jack Dorsey is stepping away from Twitter—and its board. known for Strict Regulations and Regular Banning of Offenders He Has Turned The Restriction on Himself with a tweet of course 🙂
Unlike many founders, who exit the CEO job only to hang on as executive chairman or a director for years, Dorsey is leaving both roles. He wrote Monday that after handing the reins to Twitter Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal, he plans to serve on the board through “May-ish” to help with the transition. The company also named director Bret Taylor, who is Salesforce’s president, as board chair.
As Dorsey wrote in a memo to employees (shared, of course, via a tweet), “I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead.” The billionaire, who is on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated $11.9 billion fortune, added “it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction,” writing that he’s “worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders.”
To be sure, Dorsey has long had a peculiar approach to leading Twitter. He co-founded the social media platform in 2006 and led it briefly in its early days before being pushed out; he rejoined as executive chairman in 2011 and returned as CEO in 2015. In the interim, he launched Square and then took the highly unusual step of being CEO of both companies, an arrangement that left Dorsey running Twitter part-time, sparking heavy fire from some investors.
Since then, he’s become known for having an extremely hands-off management style, with eccentricities such as taking silent retreats and ice baths.
Governance experts say a swift board departure after a CEO exit by a founder is unusual, especially if they’re as enigmatic as Dorsey. But they also say it’s exactly the right move for founders who step down, even though some questioned why it took Dorsey so long to make it.
Noam Wasserman, dean of Yeshiva University’s business school and author of The Founder’s Dilemmas, who says Dorsey’s board departure follows advice he’d give, wondered “why is he finally getting religion now? Why hasn’t he done this [already]?”
For more on governance experts’ reactions to the news—and why having a founder on the board who’s not in charge can inhibit new CEOs—read my story here.
Cheers,
Jena