New Twitter CEO steps from behind the scenes to high profile

By BARBARA ORTUTAY
AP Technology Writer

Newly named Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (PUH-rag AH-gur-wahl) has emerged from behind the scenes to take over one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile and politically volatile jobs. But his prior lack of name recognition coupled with a solid technical background appears to be what some big company backers were looking for to lead Twitter out of its current morass. A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal comes from outside the ranks of celebrity CEOs, which include the man he’s replacing, Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Those brand-name CEOs are often in the news — and on Twitter — for exploits beyond the day-to-day running of their companies. .