Jack Dorsey announced on Twitter Monday that he is resigning as CEO of the social networking company after nearly 16 years.

Dorsey has been leading Twitter in various roles since the social media giant was founded in 2006. He went from co-founder to CEO before being pushed out in 2008. Dorsey rejoined Twitter in 2011 as executive chair before taking over as CEO again in 2015.

Twitter’s CTO Parag Agrawal has been named Dorsey’s successor, effective immediately, and Bret Taylor, Salesforce President, COO, and Twitter chairman, has been promoted to Twitter’s board chair.

“I want you all to know that this was my decision, and I own it. It was a tough one for me, of course. I love this service and company…and all of you so much. I’m really sad…yet really happy,” Dorsey said in an email he shared on Twitter. “There aren’t many companies that get to this level. And there aren’t many founders that choose their company over their own ego. I know we’ll prove this was the right move.”

Check out Dorsey's talk on the importance of cryptocurrency at the AfroTech Conference earlier this month.

Meet Twitter's New CEO

Agrawal will take over as CEO starting today, while Dorsey will carry out his term as board chair through May 2022. Dorsey will be cutting all ties with Twitter once his board term ends, and he says he is leaving altogether because he wants to give Agrawal and Taylor space to lead the company as they see fit.

Agrawal also tweeted the email he sent to Dorsey and the company’s team following the announcement today.

Agrawal joined Twitter a decade ago as an engineer when there were fewer than 1,000 employees. He climbed his way to CTO as Twitter reports having 5,500 employees as of December 2020.

“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,” Agrawal said in a statement. “It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it’s a signal that the work we do here matters.”

This shift in Twitter’s leadership team comes after Dorsey faced significant criticism in the last couple of years for the censorship of public figures on its site — most notably, former President Donald Trump. Dorsey was also almost ousted last year following Twitter stakeholder Elliott Management calling for his replacement.