SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Jack Dorsey has stepped down from his role as the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter.
The 45-year-old businessman announced in a tweet Monday that he has resigned. He included his resignation email to Twitter employees, which laid out his reasons for stepping down.
Dorsey said he decided to leave Twitter because he believes the company is ready to move on from its founders.
“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,” Dorsey wrote.
Twitter also released a statement that says Twitter’s board of directors has unanimously appointed Parag Agrawal as the new CEO and member of the board, effective immediately.
Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders.
Additionally, Bret Taylor was named the new chairman of the board, succeeding Patrick Pichette who will remain on the board and continue to serve as chair of its audit committee.
Shares of Twitter surged following reports of Dorsey’s resignation Monday morning. The company’s stock, which has consistently underperformed the market, jumped more than 10% at the opening bell, The Associated Press reports.
Dorsey helped create the social media giant in 2006. He was fired as CEO in 2008 but returned to the top role in 2015.
Along with Twitter, Dorsey is the CEO of Square, a financial payments company he co-founded in 2009.