Elon Musk’s Critique Led To Parag Agrawal’s Departure From Leadership

Months before finalizing the Twitter buyout, billionaire Elon Musk had a dinner meeting with then-CEO Parag Agarwal. Walter Isaacson, the author of Elon Musk’s biography, shared insights in an excerpt published by The Wall Street Journal. During the meeting, Musk found a key leadership quality missing in Agarwal.

While Musk described Agarwal as a “really nice guy,” he believed that managers shouldn’t necessarily aim to be liked, as per Isaacson’s report. Musk expressed that Twitter needed a more assertive leader, stating, “What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon, and Parag is not that.”

The dinner also included Twitter’s then-board chair, Bret Taylor. After the meeting, both Musk and Agarwal exchanged cordial messages, which were later disclosed in a lawsuit Twitter filed against Musk in September 2022.

However, tensions escalated in April when Musk tweeted about Twitter’s perceived decline. Agarwal politely expressed his concerns, to which Musk responded with a pointed question about Agarwal’s accomplishments that week.

Ultimately, a deal to take Twitter private was reached in October, and one of Musk’s initial actions was to remove Agarwal from his position as CEO.