Dropbox announced a major leadership transition, revealing that co-founder and CEO Drew Houston will step down from the CEO role following a transition period and move into the position of executive chairman. As part of the transition, Ashraf Alkarmi has been promoted to co-CEO and will eventually become the company’s sole CEO.
Alkarmi joined Dropbox in 2024 and most recently served as general manager of the company’s core business, overseeing products including file sharing, Sign, and DocSend. Before joining Dropbox, Alkarmi held leadership positions at Vimeo, Amazon, and Meta.
Houston said Alkarmi has played a major role in strengthening Dropbox’s core business and helping guide the company’s AI strategy, including initiatives tied to Dropbox Dash and other AI-powered workplace tools. Alkarmi said customers will see a “faster, smarter” Dropbox that is increasingly centered around AI-driven workflows.
The leadership changes come during a broader period of executive reshuffling at Dropbox. The company also announced that Michael Torres, currently a Google executive with prior Kindle leadership experience at Amazon, will join as chief product officer effective July 7, 2026.
Dropbox also reaffirmed that its second-quarter and full-year 2026 financial results are expected to meet or exceed previously issued guidance. Earlier this month, the company reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $629.5 million, topping analyst expectations.
The leadership transition marks the end of nearly two decades of founder-led leadership under Houston, who co-founded Dropbox in 2007 with Arash Ferdowsi while attending MIT. Since then, Dropbox has grown into one of the most widely used cloud storage and collaboration platforms globally, while increasingly expanding into AI-powered productivity tools.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re promoting Ashraf Alkarmi to co-CEO of Dropbox. Ashraf has done an incredible job transforming our core business, and I can’t think of a better leader for Dropbox’s next chapter.”
Drew Houston, Co-Founder and CEO, Dropbox
“AI is changing what’s possible, and our customers are going to see a very different Dropbox, faster, smarter and built around the way they actually work.”
Ashraf Alkarmi, Co-CEO, Dropbox
