Month: December 2021

NEW YORK (TIP): With his elevation as the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, in whom co-founder of the microblogging giant Jack Dorsey has “bone-deep” trust, joins the growing power club of Indian-origin executives helming US-based global multinationals.

Also Read:Parag Agrawal’s Ajmer Connection

Twitter’s outgoing CEO Dorsey announced on Monday, November 29, that 37-year-old Agrawal, an IIT Mumbai and Stanford University alumnus, will be the company’s new chief executive as he stepped down after 16 years at the company that he co-founded and helmed.

A report in The New York Times said Agrawal will receive an annual salary of USD 1 million, in addition to bonuses, restricted stock units and performance-based stock units. “After almost 16 years of having a role at our company…from co-founder to CEO to Chair to Exec Chair to interim-CEO to CEO…I decided it’s finally time for me to leave. Why?

“There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being ‘founder-led.’ Ultimately, I believe that’s severely limiting and a single point of failure. I’ve worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders. There are 3 reasons I believe now is the right time.

“The first is Parag becoming our CEO. The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep,” Dorsey said.

Agrawal’s ascension as Twitter CEO puts him in the growing ranks of Indian-origin and Indian-born executives being named to the helm of global multinationals.

In January last year, Indian-born technology executive Arvind Krishna was named Chief Executive Officer of American IT giant IBM after a “world-class succession process”, succeeding Virginia Rometty, who had described him as the “right CEO for the next era at IBM” and “well-positioned” to lead the company into the cloud and cognitive era. Krishna, 59, had joined IBM in 1990 and has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In August 2015, Sundar Pichai was named CEO of the newly organized Google, becoming only the third chief executive of the company after former CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page. In December 2019, Pichai became the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet.

Pichai wished Dorsey “the very best ahead” and congratulated Agrawal and Board Chair Bret Taylor, saying he is “excited for Twitter’s future!” In February 2014, Microsoft veteran Satya Nadella was named CEO of the technology giant. MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen are among the other Indian-origin executives who have climbed up the corporate ladder and helmed multinational giants. Mumbai-born Agrawal tweeted Monday “Deep gratitude” for Dorsey and the entire team.

In a note posted on Twitter, he said he is “honored and humbled” on his appointment and expressed gratitude to Dorsey’s “continued mentorship and your friendship.” Agrawal had joined Twitter 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees.

“While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me. I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter’s incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us,” he said.

“Our purpose has never been more important. Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world. There is no limit to what we can do together,” he said.

“The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before. Lots of people are going to have lots of different views and opinions about today’s news. It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it’s a signal that the work we do here matters,” he said.

A media report said Agrawal, who was Twitter’s chief technology officer since 2017, “is little known to the public, with even some Twitter insiders saying they were surprised by his appointment.”  But behind the scenes, the India-born engineer has been a Twitter veteran and confidant of Dorsey who has been involved in many of the company’s biggest strategic initiatives, it said.

The report said that in 2005, Agrawal moved to the United States and pursued a doctorate in computer science while enrolled at Stanford University.

“Even among students at Stanford, Agrawal stood out for his strong grasp of the math and the theory that underpins computer science.” The  report quoted Jennifer Widom, who led the research lab and served as his thesis adviser, as saying.

As CTO, Agrawal was responsible for Twitter’s technical strategy, leading work to improve development velocity while advancing the state of Machine Learning across the company.

“Even as chief technology officer, Agrawal has kept a low profile. He worked behind the scenes to rebuild Twitter’s technical infrastructure, which had been cobbled together over the years. That led to engineering problems and prevented the company from introducing new products and services as quickly as it wanted. Agrawal helped Twitter shift to using cloud computing services from Google and Amazon, streamlining its operations,” the report said.

Prior to being appointed CTO, he “had risen to be Twitter’s first Distinguished Engineer due to his work across revenue and consumer engineering, including his impact on the re-acceleration of audience growth in 2016 and 2017,” the company said.

Agrawal also managed Twitter’s effort to “incorporate cryptocurrencies into the platform, letting users send tips in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. And he has supported efforts to be transparent about Twitter’s algorithmic mistakes, urging the company to go public with its findings that a photo-cropping algorithm it used was biased,” the media report said.

I.S. Saluja

HICKSVILLE, NY (TIP): Congressman Tom Suozzi took all by surprise last week when he announced via a video on social mediathat he was running for Governor of the State of New York. In the video he claimed that he was “a common-sense Democrat who has the experience to get the job done as Governor of New York”. Mr. Suozzi is currently a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee of the House of Representatives. Tom was elected Glen Cove Mayor in 1993. At just 31, he was the youngest mayor in the City’s history. He restored Glen Cove’s ailing fiscal health, securing numerous record-breaking credit ratings. He revitalized the City’s downtown business district, spurred massive commercial development, and built a new courthouse, city hall, and police headquarters.

He spearheaded a $100 million clean-up of some of America’s most toxic superfund sites. That waterfront area is now a showcase of residential, commercial, and recreational development. Glen Cove was designated as a national Brownfields Showcase Community and recognized twice by Vice-President Al Gore for its environmental cleanup efforts. In January 1997 The New York Times said that “…Mr. Suozzi is widely seen as having done more to revitalize the North Shore community and reinvigorate its flagging economy in a few short years than the last several mayors combined.” Tom Suozzi was the first elected executive in the state of New York to address the problems of undocumented newcomers from Central and South America. As Mayor, he opened the very first “shape up center” on the east coast of the United States, a safe location where undocumented workers were able to find work, learn English, and receive job skills training. Later, Tom Suozzi was honored by the New York Immigration Coalition for “creating an environment of welcome and inclusion for immigrants.”

Suozzi was elected Nassau County Executive in 2001, the youngest in Nassau’s history. He was the first Democrat elected with a Democratic legislature since 1917.

When Suozzi took over, the County was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University, named Nassau as “the worst run county in America.”

Tom Suozzi engineered what was heralded by public policy experts as one of the greatest government financial turnarounds in the country.

Governing Magazine named Suozzi one of its Public Officials of the Year, in 2005, calling him a “high-voltage transformer…the man who spearheaded Nassau County, New York’s, remarkable turnaround from the brink of fiscal disaster.”

He championed a $150 million Environmental Program to preserve open space, improve parks, protect groundwater quality, cleanup brownfields, and improve stormwater treatment, catch basins, and streams. He was named the 2008 New York State’s League of Conservation Voters “Environmentalist of the Year.”

Under Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, Nassau was ranked the safest place in the nation with a population over 500,000 and had its lowest crime rate in decades. Suozzi sponsored Gun-Buy-Back programs, created an Anti-Gang Task Force, and implemented a new ShotSpotter platform to deter crimes.

Suozzi introduced a revolutionary new “No Wrong Door” human services delivery system. It provided a single point of entry for residents requiring assistance to the County’s seven human services departments resulting in “one-stop shopping” and integrated case management. It was featured by Governing Magazine as a “next-generation” human services program.

Tom was determined to make sure that the people who worked for the County reflect the diversity of people who live in the County. He created the most diverse working force in the County’s history.

Suozzi became the first leader in the country to reimagine the future economic landscape of the suburbs. He outlined what he deemed the “New Suburbia” – a master plan designed for the County’s revitalization, a roadmap to a 2020 Vision.

Tom Suozzi was not constrained by his job description, or the traditional role given to Nassau’s chief executive. He spoke out loudly about the crushing state Medicaid costs forced onto local governments throughout the state.

He created “Fix-Albany.Com, a statewide political action committee to cap Medicaid costs and “to root out corruption in the New York State government, reform the Legislature and hold State legislators accountable for their non-action to help County and local governments.”

The NY Times praised “Suozzi’s Excellent Idea!” Newsday issued a call to ”Support Suozzi’s Challenge.” The Buffalo News lauded him for ”Going After Albany.” The Staten Island Advance said ”Right on to Suozzi’s Revolution.”

He became President of the State County Executives Association and started a grassroots movement of local elected officials to cap local Medicaid costs.

Suozzi’s relentless pressure, his “Fix-Albany” campaign, and his statewide leadership paid off big time for the taxpayers of New York State.

In 2005, New York passed a historic new statewide Medicaid cap, which has saved New York City and New York’s counties billions of dollars.

In 2006, Suozzi ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor. During the race, a New York Times editorial offered him the following praise:

“Suozzi was earlier (than Spitzer) in recognizing that New York’s state government is a mess and that its irresponsibility threatens local governments as well. And unlike the vast majority of politicians who complain that Albany needs fixing, he did something about it, risking his own political capital to back candidates against entrenched incumbent state legislators. That kind of gumption is rarer than any other political virtue in New York.”

In 2008, the Governor appointed Tom to serve as Chair of the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief, which later led to the passage of the State Property Tax Cap which has also saved taxpayers and homeowners billions of dollars. In January 2017, he was sworn in as a member of the House.

In his very first days in Congress, Suozzi joined the Problem Solvers Congressional Caucus, now grown to an equal number of 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans who meet weekly to try to find common ground. Toms’ philosophy is to work with anyone to try and solve problems on behalf of the people he serves.

Suozzi has led the national fight to restore (SALT) the State and Local Tax Deduction that helps middle-class working families in high property taxed communities. The New York Daily News heralded Tom’s SALT record saying: “Congressman Tom Suozzi…is absolutely right to stick to his “No SALT, no deal” demand in refusing to support any changes to the federal tax code unless the horrendously unfair limitation on deduction of state and local taxes is repealed.” Tom was one of the first members of Congress to make delivering federal COVID aid to New York a top priority to revive our economy, protect unemployed workers, help fiscally save our hospitals, and get New Yorker’s the vaccines they need. As Vice-Chair of the Problem Solver’s Caucus, Tom helped negotiate the historic Infrastructure and Jobs Act, which will invest billions of dollars to improve New York’s roads and bridges, upgrade the LIRR, NYC subways and mass transit, modernize and improve our airports, support the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, and address the climate crisis. He’s been a fierce advocate for gun violence prevention, cosponsoring every major piece of gun violence legislation.

He was one of the first co-sponsors of the GREEN Act, fought to reverse the misguided decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, and increased federal funding to preserve the Long Island Sound by almost 500%.

He fights every day to increase access to affordable health care, lower the cost of prescription drugs, and protect Medicare against Republican attacks. He has helped to secure tens of millions of dollars to provide housing for veterans, introduced legislation for all veterans to receive free mental health treatment, and has worked to improve the facilities at the Northport VA.

He championed and passed the Never Again Education Act to teach the horrors of the holocaust in American schools, supported the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, and has used his position as a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to fight China’s persecution of the Muslim Uyghur minority.

In addition to his years as an elected official, Tom has private sector experience as an auditor for Arthur Anderson & Co., a litigator for Shearman & Sterling, law clerk to the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of New York, a senior advisor to investment banking firm Lazard, and as of counsel at Harris Beach law firm. Tom is a graduate of Chaminade High School on Long Island, Boston College, and Fordham Law School where he helped create the Student Sponsored Fellowship and the Fordham Public Service Project. His work was honored at his graduation where he received special commendation for “the program’s significant contributions” to the law school.

Congressman Suozzi resides in Glen Cove with his wife Helene, a former teacher who graduated Wheaton College in Massachusetts and earned a master’s degree from the Bank Street College of Education, in New York City.

Married for 28 years, Tom and Helene have three children and a family dog, Gabby. Caroline, 26, who graduated from Fordham University and travelled 8,000 miles from home to volunteer for one year as a teacher at a Jesuit High School on the island of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia. She now works at the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to help donors create thoughtful, effective philanthropy throughout the world. Joseph, 23, who graduated from Boston College, where he was the captain and played left field on the BC Eagles baseball team. In 2020, he was signed by the New York Mets, his home-town team, and is currently playing in their minor league system.Michael, 18, was an honor student at Chaminade High School and now is a freshman at Georgetown University.