Update — May 5, 10:30 pm ET
Paypal President David Marcus took to the company blog Monday to slam Agrawal for his tweets and vigorously defend Paypal employees insulted by the former executive.
When Rakesh (a.k.a. "Rocky") Agrawal joined PayPal in March as a Director of Strategy, he said in our own PayPal Forward blog that he couldn't think of a "better place to be." So the turn of events over the past few days have been shocking and sad. Stan Chudnovsky, our VP of Growth and Strategy, invited Rocky to join his team to help PayPal chart the future of payments for small businesses and entrepreneurs. But instead of focusing on that amazing opportunity, Rocky chose to turn a career-defining moment into career-destroying infamy.
Since his tasteless tweets first became public, Rocky has posted positive remarks about myself and other PayPal leaders. Thanks but no thanks, Rocky. When you attack and insult my team, you attack, and insult me and the rest of PayPal. I think the world of the people you've insulted. They are some of the best people I've worked with in my career, and I will not tolerate your mad rants any longer.
Now...if you're a close friend of Rocky's and you're out there, I'd strongly suggest getting to him sooner rather than later, as his behavior is extremely worrisome.
We at PayPal are putting this episode behind us, as always working on behalf of our customers.
Onward with dignity and respect…
Update — May 4, 9:36 a.m.: Agrawal claims in a tweet he wasn't actually fired, but resigned before his tweeting.
P.s. the tweet from paypal is factually correct but utterly misleading. I resigned before the events of Friday night.
PayPal Director of Strategy Rakesh "Rocky" Agrawal has been fired for a series of profanity-laden tweets insulting his co-workers that he sent while on vacation at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
Rakesh Agrawal is no longer with the company. Treat everyone with respect. No excuses. PayPal has zero tolerance.
Agrawal, who was hired just two months ago, began tweeting at 1 a.m., calling out co-workers like PayPal's VP of Global Communications Christina Smedley, who he described as a "useless middle manager" and a "piece of shit."
Some of the tweets were just gibberish.
And others were mysteriously directed toward Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.
Agrawal attempted some damage control a few hours later and apologized for the tweets, which have since been deleted, saying he was trying out a new phone and was "sleep deprived."
