Vijaya Gadde is an American attorney who served as Twitter’s general counsel and head of legal, public policy, and trust and safety from August 2013 to October 2022. She is of Indian origin. Gadde came into the spotlight in 2021 after spearheading the decision to permanently suspend former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account. She was fired from her position at Twitter by Elon Musk on October 27, 2022, after Musk acquired Twitter.
Wiki/Biography
Vijaya Gadde was born in 1974 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India (48 years old; as of 2022). At the age of three, she moved with her family to Beaumont, Texas, where her father had originally moved to complete his education.
Vijaya Gad childhood photos
A few months later, her family moved to the East Coast, and Vijaya received her schooling in New Jersey. After completing his studies, Vijaya attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1993-1997), pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Relations. Thereafter, she attended New York University School of Law in New York State (1997-2000), receiving her J.D.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 5″
Hair color: dark brown
Eye color: dark brown
family
Vijaya Gadde belongs to a Telugu family.
Parents and siblings
Her father worked as a chemical engineer in an oil refinery in the Gulf of Mexico. He also worked as a sideline collecting insurance premiums in Beaumont, Texas. Her mother’s name is Ramani Gad. She has a sister named Kavitha Gadde, who is the head of Strategic Publisher Partnerships in the United States.
Vijaya Gadde and her mother
Vijaya Gadde with her mother and sister
husband and children
Vijaya Gadde’s husband, Ramsey Homsany, is a lawyer and technology executive. Ramsey is co-founder and president of Octant Bio, a biotechnology research company aiming to improve drug discovery in the health industry. Homsany was a former executive at file hosting service Dropbox. He also served as a vice president at Google. The couple has two children, a daughter named Rumi and a son.
Vijaya Gadde and her husband
Profession
After receiving his law degree, Gadde began working as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a US law firm based in Palo Alto, California, in October 2000. While there, she closely followed the $4.1 billion acquisition of McClatchy Co.-Knight Ridder Inc. in 2006. Vijaya also serves as an advisor to the New York Stock Exchange’s Proxy Working Group and Corporate Governance Committee. She resigned from her position in April 2010 after working at WSGR for nearly ten years. In October 2010, Vijaya joined Juniper Networks, a California-based networking hardware company, as senior director and deputy general counsel (corporate). She worked there for about a year. Gadde began working at Twitter in San Francisco, California, in July 2011 as a director and head of legal affairs.
Vijaya Gadde discusses Twitter’s moderation policy on Joe Rogan Experience
At Twitter, she initially worked on general corporate, securities, M&A, and international affairs. After about two years there, Vijaya was promoted to the company’s general counsel and director of legal, public policy and trust and safety. As Twitter’s head of legal and policy, Vijaya’s primary responsibilities include addressing tweets involving harassment, harmful speech and fake news. Gadde has also been involved in many of Twitter’s high-profile decisions. On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk fired Gadde from his position at Twitter.
Vijaya Gadde explains Twitter’s policies at an event
Vijaya Gadde is also the co-founder of San Francisco-based investment group Angels. The company supports startups and helps ensure equal pay for female employees at successful companies in the United States.
dispute
Crushing Brahminical Patriarchy Controversy
In 2018, Vijaya Gadde sparked controversy when she was photographed holding a “Smash the Brahminical Patriarchy” placard alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The incident occurred during Dorsey and Gadde’s visit to India, where they met female Indian journalists and Dalit activists and discussed their experiences on Twitter. Shortly after the meeting, activists gave Dorsey a sign that read “Smash the Brahminical Patriarchy” and posed for photos with them. Gad is pictured standing next to him. Gadde and Dorsey were subsequently criticized on social media for discriminating against Brahmins and promoting caste and gender oppression in India. Gad later apologized on her social media account and clarified that the placard was shown to them by Dalit activists. Stressing that Twitter aims to be a fair platform, Vijaya wrote,
I’m very sorry about this. It does not reflect our views. We took a personal photo with a gift we just received – we should have been more thoughtful. Twitter is committed to being a fair platform for everyone. We failed to do that here and we have to do a better job of serving our customers in India. “
Awards, Honors and Achievements
- Named the most powerful woman on Twitter’s executive team by Fortune magazine in 2014 (she was later joined by Twitter Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland)
- Described by Politico as the “most powerful social media executive you’ve never heard of” in 2020
- Named to Instyle Magazine’s “Badass 50 2020: Meet the Women Who Are Changing the World”
income
Before being fired by Twitter in October 2022, Vijaya was apparently one of Twitter’s highest-paid executives. As Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya earned approximately $7.3 million in 2020 and approximately $17 million in 2021.
Facts/Trivia
- Vijaya Gadde is often spotted drinking at various social events.
Vijaya Gadde at the party
- During his tenure as Twitter’s head of legal and policy, Vijaya was often referred to as Twitter’s “head of censorship.”
- In an interview, while sharing one of her experiences growing up in the United States, Vijaya said that her childhood was deeply influenced by the Ku Klux Klan. She said that when her family lived in Beaumont, her father’s employer asked him to get permission from local Ku Klux Klan leaders to go door-to-door to collect insurance premiums. She added that the incident left a deep impression on her and she decided to become a lawyer to fight racism.
- In April 2022, when Elon Musk began to acquire Twitter, Musk criticized Gadde for blocking certain people on the platform and attacked her for having “left-wing bias.” During the acquisition, Musk described himself as a free speech absolutist and called Twitter’s ban on Trump a mistake. Apparently, Vijaya was instrumental in permanently banning Donald Trump’s Twitter account following the 2021 Capitol Hill riots. Musk even posted a meme about Twitter’s “left-wing bias” during a discussion with American YouTubers Tim Pool and Dorsey on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Vijaya Gadde. She also faced criticism for suspending the account of the New York Post over its exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Elon Musk mocks Vijaya Gadde on Twitter
- As per the severance policy, Vijaya Gadde is apparently eligible for a golden parachute compensation worth $54.7 million (approximately Rs. 450 crore) upon termination upon involuntary termination within the applicable COC (Twitter Change of Control Period).
- Gadde also reportedly held 623,156 direct shares of Twitter worth $33,775,055 at the time of his firing.
- Sharing her childhood memories in one of her tweets, Gadde wrote that as a child, she used to complain that she was only allowed to carry a box of books from the library during summer vacations in India.
- During her tenure as Twitter’s head of legal and policy, Twitter failed to remove child pornography videos despite repeated requests from victims and their parents. Apparently, the victim was bullied and harassed by her classmates after the video went viral. After multiple requests, Twitter responded to the victims’ parents saying it could not remove the videos because they did not violate company policy. At the time, the video had been viewed by hundreds of thousands of users and retweeted thousands of times. Twitter later took action against the user who posted the video when the victim filed a formal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security.
- As one of Twitter’s key officials, Vijaya has accompanied Twitter founder Jack Dorsey on several occasions. In November 2018, she visited India with Dorsey and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She even attended Doshi’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. Gad also attended Jack’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Vijaya Gadde with Jack Dorsey and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to India
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education