New Twitter CEO has already begun a 'major reorganization'
Parag Agrawal pushes out engineering and design leads in his first week.
Following founder Jack Dorsey's recent departure on Monday, Twitter's new CEO Parag Agrawal is wasting no time shaking up the company. A report from The Washington Post states that Agrawal announced a "major reorganization of the company" today, including exits by Michael Montano and Dantley Davis, who led engineering and design, respectively.
Twitter confirmed the reorganization to Engadget. A spokesperson said "Parag is focused on operational excellence and setting Twitter up to hit its goals; these changes were made with that in mind." The changes include moving to a "General Manager model" for teams in the product and technology organizations, which will mean having one person lead the work in those divisions. "This will allow us to operate more cross-functionally and enable faster, more informed decision-making," the spokesperson added.
Davis earlier today tweeted a picture from a team offsite, saying: "It was the highlight of the past two years at Twitter for me. Thank you to everyone who made this special. It has meant more than words can describe." Sara Beykpouf, who worked on the company's product team, also posted that today would be their last day at Twitter, although it's not clear if this is related to the reorganization.
The Post reported that according to a companywide email it obtained, Montano and Davis will be leaving by the end of the year (i..e, this month). It also indicated that the "reshuffling appears to primarily affect the company’s consumer, revenue, and core tech divisions, which will be helmed by Kayvon Beykpour, Bruce Falck, and Nick Caldwell, respectively."
In retrospect, there were hints that big changes at the company were underway. In a series of tweets sent by Twitter's Investor Relations account during the Bank of America Securities 2021 Leveraged Finance Conference yesterday. Specifically, the team said: "We can move faster and execute better. We'll focus on the same goals, same metrics, and same work. But we believe Parag can help us make decisions faster, and be more clear about where decision-making sits."
We think we have the right strategy in place and Parag will build on top of the really strong foundation that Jack built to but allow us to move faster and execute even better. $TWTR
— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) December 2, 2021
Update (12/3/21, 3:24pm ET): This post was edited to include a statement and details from Twitter that arrived after the story was published.