“Every challenge we have as a society depends on being able to harness our brainpower and do knowledge work well,” Houston says, noting that today’s systems often create roadblocks to humanity’s highest goals. Houston explains that he’s particularly concerned about productivity loss caused by “work about work,” the estimated 60% of time that knowledge workers spend on tasks such as finding information, checking email, toggling between apps, and coordinating with people and teams around the world. “I’m proud to see MIT leading from the front, making ambitious investments like the one in this college.” It also provides the college’s inaugural dean, Daniel Huttenlocher SM ’84, PhD ’88, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Computer Science and AI and Decision-Making, with flexible start-up funding.Īdvances in computing, especially those related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, hold great promise for transforming workplaces for the better, Houston says. His gift supports the hiring of a chaired faculty member in the college and the MIT Sloan School of Management who pursues research at the intersection of computer science and management science. That’s one reason he made an early gift in support of the MIT Stephen A. Now that Houston is CEO of one of the world’s leading business collaboration platforms with 2,300 employees and 12 offices, he says he has become increasingly frustrated with the inefficiency of the modern workplace. Cofounded with MIT classmate Arash Ferdowsi in 2007, Dropbox today helps 600 million people around the world share and keep track of files. Few would argue he made a great start when he launched Dropbox. Drew Houston ’05 is on a mission to create a better world-of work.
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