Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will step down as head of the social media platform he co-founded a decade and a half ago, the company announced Monday.

Parag Agrawal, a board member and former chief technology officer, was appointed CEO effective immediately, and Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires at next year's stockholders' meeting, the company said.

"I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders," Dorsey said in a statement released by Twitter.

"There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being 'founder-led,'" Dorsey said.

Taylor will succeed Patrick Pichette, a former Google executive, who will remain on the board as chairman of the audit committee.

"Twitter is the leading global medium for real-time conversation and engagement, and our collaboration with Jack and the company for the past two years has been productive and effective," Elliott Management Managing Partner Jesse Cohn and Senior Portfolio Manager Marc Steinberg said in a joint statement.

"Having gotten to know both incoming Chairman Bret Taylor and incoming CEO Parag Agrawal, we are confident that they are the right leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company."

"We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right," he said in a statement