Facebook Names Dropbox CEO to Board of Directors

Todd Spangler
·2 min read

Click here to read the full article.

Facebook announced that Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox — and a longtime friend of Mark Zuckerberg — has been appointed to the company’s board.

Houston founded Dropbox in 2007 with Arash Ferdowsi. The company’s storage service is used today by over 600 million people worldwide, including 14 million paying subscribers. Houston graduated from MIT in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

More from Variety

With the addition of Houston as an independent director, Facebook’s board expands to eight members. Those are Houston; Facebook co-founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO; Peggy Alford, PayPal’s senior VP, core markets; Marc Andreessen, general partner of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz; Kenneth Chenault, chairman and managing director, General Catalyst; Peter Thiel, co-founder/ex-CEO of PayPal and principal of Founders Fund; and Jeffrey Zients, CEO of the Cranemere Group.

Last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings exited Facebook’s board, along with Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

Zuckerberg, in a statement about Houston’s appointment, said, “Drew brings valuable perspective to our board as a leader of a technology company with services used by millions of people and businesses. He thinks deeply about where technology is going and how to build a culture that delivers services that always work well.”

Houston commented, “It’s been inspiring to watch Facebook grow into a platform that reaches billions of people around the world. I’m looking forward to working with Mark and the rest of the board on the many opportunities and challenges ahead.”

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.