In internal memos shared Tuesday, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said Ashraf Alkarmi will become co-CEO and that Houston will train him through a transition before stepping down as CEO and moving into the role of executive chairman. Houston’s message tied the change
Dropbox’s leadership handoff didn’t arrive like a distant corporate announcement. It landed in employees’ inboxes on Tuesday, with a clear message: the CEO job will change hands, and Drew Houston will be in the room—training the successor—before he steps aside.
Houston told staff in a memo that Dropbox has named Ashraf Alkarmi as co-CEO. He said he will train Alkarmi as his replacement, and that after a transition period he plans to step down as CEO to become executive chairman.
For Houston, the timing and the tone mattered. He wrote that the company’s culture was in “good hands” with Alkarmi. adding a story from early in his career: “before you hire anyone. ask yourself if you’d feel good about your little brother or sister working for this person.” Houston said he didn’t have kids at the time. but that Alkarmi is the leader who fits that test.
Houston also described the working relationship in plain terms: he said Alkarmi “cares deeply about the people doing the work. ” “tells the truth even when it’s hard. ” and “disagrees with me when I’m wrong.” He credited Alkarmi—who previously oversaw Dropbox’s core business—with helping the company navigate challenging periods.
The handoff comes after a difficult operational reset inside Dropbox. Just before Alkarmi joined the company in November 2024, Dropbox axed about 20% of its workforce due to softening demand and excess management.
Since then, Alkarmi has overseen the launch of AI products, according to his LinkedIn profile. In his own Tuesday note to employees, he said the company needs to keep “innovating aggressively” as it moves deeper into the AI era.
Houston’s memo framed the transition as a step taken for the next chapter. He told employees that the business is in “a stronger position than it’s been in years. ” and that progress has come largely because of Alkarmi. He wrote that Alkarmi inherited “a challenging setup” when he took over the core business. that “many inside and outside the company were skeptical” about Dropbox’s trajectory changing. and that Alkarmi made “difficult and courageous calls” and placed “smart bets” that “are paying off. ” even as Houston said “there’s still plenty of important work ahead.”.
In a detail that mixed reassurance with a touch of familiarity, Houston added that during the transition his focus would be “making sure Dropbox is in the strongest possible shape,” and joked: “it won’t be long before I’m getting credit card alerts for my Cursor token spend.”
Alkarmi’s memo doubled down on customer focus and the mechanics of operating through change. He said he was “beyond excited” for the next chapter and described what energized him most since joining Dropbox: the connection people have with the brand—from creative teams at Sundance to longtime users who told him Dropbox was “one of the first products they ever paid for.”.
He said those conversations create a “real responsibility” to keep improving the experience. and he laid out priorities in customer terms: he wants to “double down on customer obsession. ” build products that “solve hard. real problems. ” and innovate aggressively in response to customers asking for more in the AI era.
Alkarmi also gave a clear timetable for another leadership addition. He said Mike Torres will join Dropbox and the senior leadership team as the new Chief Product Officer on July 7. Torres. Alkarmi wrote. brings experience leading and scaling products used by “hundreds of millions of people. ” including leadership roles across Chrome. Kindle. and OneDrive. along with a track record of driving focus across large organizations. Alkarmi said Dropbox will share more on Torres and the Product Organization “this week. ” with more details “to follow this summer.”.
He anchored his confidence in the assets Dropbox already has, including what he called “a trusted brand with more than 700 million global registered users,” deep customer relationships, and employees who “genuinely care about the quality of what we build.”
The sequence was set up to move fast without breaking continuity. Houston said he and Alkarmi will “jointly lead” Dropbox during the transition, working side-by-side, with Houston transitioning into executive chairman and Alkarmi becoming the sole CEO after that period.
Houston told employees that there would be an All Hands at 10am PT that day, where leadership would take questions. The memos closed with the same central message—different in tone. but aligned in purpose: a leadership change tied to the company’s culture. its recent transformation. and the pressure to deliver in an AI-driven market.
Dropbox Drew Houston Ashraf Alkarmi co-CEO executive chairman succession plan workforce reduction AI products Chief Product Officer Mike Torres July 7