Twitter Inc.’s new Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal is now the youngest CEO in the S&P 500, but apparently just barely. Agrawal, who is a relatively unknown executive was appointed Monday to succeed Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, is 37, the same age as Meta Platform Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Citing security concerns, Twitter wouldn’t disclose Agrawal’s date of birth but confirmed he was born later in 1984 than Zuckerberg’s May 14 birthday. Dorsey, at 45, was already among the dozen youngest CEOs in the collection of the largest U.S. companies.
David Larcker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who studies CEO performance, commented: “I don’t think the age thing is that big of a deal, especially for companies like this. It could be an advantage. The fact that Dorsey is stepping down from the board, so he’s not going to be like a shadow CEO, he must have real confidence in him.”
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett, is the oldest CEO in the S&P 500 at 91, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average age of a CEO among the 500 largest companies was about 58 years, the data show. But the broader trend in CEO age still doesn’t favor youth.
Data on S&P 500 companies measured over the last two decades by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart shows a small but steady increase in the age of the CEO.
Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011. Dorsey will stay on the board of the San Francisco-based company until his term expires in 2022, Twitter said Monday in a statement. Agrawal is also joining the board, where he will also be a statistical outlier. The average age of an S&P 500 director is 63, according to Spencer Stuart.
Agrawal, who has been with the company for 10 years – most recently as chief technology officer – has emerged from behind the scenes to take over one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile and politically volatile jobs. But who is he, and what can we expect for Twitter under his leadership?
A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal comes from outside the ranks of celebrity CEOs, which include the man he’s replacing as well as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk. But his lack of name recognition, coupled with a solid technical background, appears to be what some of Twitter’s biggest backers were looking for in the company’s next chapter.
Agrawal is a “‘safe’ pick who should be looked upon as favorably by investors”, wrote the CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino, who noted that the Twitter shareholder Elliott Management had pressured Dorsey to step down.
That means we can expect more of the same under him in terms of policy and company direction, experts say – including plans to continue Twitter’s recent strategy to double its annual revenue by 2023 and focus on its long-term ambition to rebuild how social media companies operate.
