The CEO of social media giant Twitter, Jack Dorsey, will step down from the role, the company confirmed on Monday.

The company's board, which had been preparing for Dorsey's departure since last year, has unanimously appointed the current chief technology officer Parag Agrawal as his successor.

In a letter posted on his Twitter account, Dorsey said he was "really sad ... yet really happy'' about his decision to leave the company.

Dorsey also said that he sought to leave Twitter in order to give Agrawal "the space he needs to lead," after a transition period that would last until May.

Parag credited with company's turnaround

Dorsey's departure comes at a time when Twitter has made headlines for its renewed pace of product launches, after years of criticism that the site had fallen behind larger rivals like Facebook and newer social media apps such as TikTok.

"Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around," Dorsey said.

The Twitter founder praised the fact that Agrawal had begun his career at the company as an engineer just 10 years ago and had climbed all the way up to CEO.

Agrawal said he was "honored and humbled" to be appointed the new CEO and thanked Dorsey for his "continued mentorship and friendship."

Dorsey shuns 'founder-led' culture

Like many in Silicon Valley, from Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to Bill Gates, Dorsey dropped out of university to create Twitter. He left the company in 2008 but returned as CEO after Dick Costolo resigned in June, 2015.

Dorsey lashed out against companies being "founder-led," calling it "severely limiting and a single point of failure."

"There aren't many companies that get to this level. And there aren't many founders that choose their company over their own ego," Dorsey wrote.

jcg/nm (AFP, Reuters, AP)