By Quaid Najmi Mumbai, Nov 30, : Mumbai was swept by excitement after Twitter Inc.announced Dr.Parag Asgrawal as its new CEO.He is a hardcore Amchi Mumbaikar who replaced Jack Dorsey, the founder-CEO of the company.
The proclamation was received with pride at his alma mater the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai.He studied between 2001 and 2005 and graduated in B.Tech in the department of Computer Science & Engineering.
Prof.
Subhasis Chaudhari, Director of IIT-B, stated that the importance of any university is often measured by its alumni’s collective achievements and the glory they bring their alma mater.Parag Agrawal is one such alumnus of which IIT is proud.
“The education and environment that IIT-B provided to Agrawal not too long ago helped in bringing out his best.He has achieved the top by hard work and dedication.
We offer our congratulations to him and hope that IITB will continue to produce such achievers,” prof.Chaudhari stated in a warm tribute.
A beaming Prof.Supratim Biswas was his teacher at IITB’s Computer Science & Engineering Department.He taught him a few subjects and recalls Agrawal as being the top of the course in 2005, bagging a coveted Silver Medal.
“He was very organized, bright, well-behaved, and focused in his life.
Professor Biswas recalls that he was a typical topper-type student and had all the attributes of an achiever.
He pointed out that IIT-B toppers come from all over India, and that to excel them requires a’special calibre.Agrawal demonstrated this – “No wonder he was awarded this enormous honour at such an early age.”
This is the second major honor for a Mumbaikar this season – in January, an University of Mumbai alumnus (1973), Prof.Srikant Datar assumed the role of Dean of Harvard Business School.
Agrawala was born in Mumbai to a Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), officer, and a schoolteacher.He studied at the Atomic Energy Central School Number.4, at Anushakti Nagar, north-east Mumbai.His schoolmate was Shreya Ghoshal, a well-known playback singer.
After passing the IITJEE in 2000, he was awarded a degree from the IITB.
He then moved to the USA, where he received his doctorate in Computer Science at Stanford University in 2011.
He also won the gold medal at 2001’s International Physics Olympiad in Turkey.
This was just one of many feathers in his cap.
After collaboration stints with Microsoft Research and Yahoo! After stints with Microsoft Research, Yahoo!
Agrawal, at Twitter Inc.is responsible for the technical strategy.He oversees machine learning and AI across the company’s science, revenue, and consumer teams.
Since 2011, he has been leading efforts to scale Twitter Ads systems and re-accelerating user development by improving home timeline relevance.
Notably, Dr.Agrawal was appointed by ex-CEO Dorsey as in-charge for Project Bluesky, which is “an independent team made up of open source engineers, architects, and designers to create an open and decentralised social media standard that would allow for better control of misleading and abusive information on its platform” – this was 24 months ago, December 2019.
November 29 was a significant day for Dr.Agrawal, when Dorsey posted his resignation via Twitter and gave him the powerful handle’.
Dr.
Agrawal reflects on his special memories with IITB.He says, “Working with friends in order to build shared storage and streaming service over the Hostel intranet, and spending time near Vihar Lake hinter Hostel 4 among close friends.”
His unique Mantra for Success is: “The whole can exceed the sum of its parts.”
Vineeta, a general partnership at a California-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, is Dr.Agrawal’s wife.They have a son.
(Quaid Najmi may be reached at: [email protected]
qn/pgh #alumnus #Mumbai
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