As Dropbox slowly gears up toward its initial public offering, it’s bringing on a longtime enterprise executive — Quentin Clark, a former VP of Microsoft as well as SAP CTO — as head of its very-long-title-where-he-will-oversee-a-ton-of-things.
His official title is going to be SVP of Engineering, Product and Design, where he will oversee all of those operations. As Dropbox looks to dive further into the enterprise, Clark’s experience is likely going to give the company what it needs to start to sign more of those deals. Dropbox has historically been known as a consumer-driven file storage company but has tried to use that as a wedge into larger corporations as it looks to build out its business.
“The leadership team was really interested in my ability to lead and manage teams that are scaling, and how to lead across engineering, product and design as a whole,” Clark said. “I met with the team many times over the course of several weeks to discuss my experiences at Microsoft and SAP, and how well they were aligned to Dropbox’s evolving needs. The other major topic of discussion was our shared view of where we could take the company.”
Hires like this are part of the staffing-up process as it starts to position itself as a viable company on the public markets. In July, Bloomberg reported that the company was working with Goldman Sachs to prepare documents, another small step toward its final debut as a public company. With constant comparisons to Box and threats from all sides for its business, it’s had to figure out a way to find both a literal and perceptual position of strength as it seeks to eventually hit that milestone.
His hire comes recently after CTO Aditya Agarwal said he would be leaving the company. But these kinds of moves are pretty common as a company matures over time and looks to bring on experienced leadership in order to position the company with positive momentum going forward. The company has said it’s hit 500 million users, hit a $1 billion run rate and has continued to aggressively pursue business customers.
Clark starts at Dropbox at the beginning of September, where he asked us to check back in a couple of months as to what his specific goals will be.
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