[News] Condoleezza Rice Joins Dropbox’s Board

[Nolan]

Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor has joined the board of cloud file storage and syncing firm Dropbox.

Dropbox is in the news today after launching a number of new products and features at a morning event in San Francisco. The company debuted Carousel, a photo storage and sharing service, along with the release of its Dropbox for Business offering to the general public, and an Android client for its Mailbox email solution.

Rice is a famous figure, known in almost equal parts for her ferocious intelligence, and controversial role in the Bush administration, which included comments on alleged weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was thought at the time to possess.

BusinessWeek initially reported the board pickup in a longer piece on the company. According to the magazine, Rice’s firm RiceHadleyGates has been an active advisor to Dropbox. TechCrunch confirmed the hire.

What’s interesting about bringing Rice onto Dropbox’s board is how normal it feels. Dropbox needs people with international experience to help it at once deal with foreign governments that have blocked its use — China, for example — and as it works to spread a product developed in one country to others that are culturally different.

Rice certainly posses that expertise. Box, a rival to Dropbox, has also made a recent push to expand internationally. In a market as competitive as this, you can’t afford to not be everywhere.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/09/con...oard/?ncid=rss

[CPUd]

Because nothing says "trust" like having a former Cabinet member on your board.

[V3n]

Abandon Dropbox! and I was just starting to use it more and more..

[CPUd]

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[milgram]

Too bad the hashtag activists don't much care about things like phony wars and torture. If anyone deserves an angry virtual mob pressuring their employer, it's people her. But it seems like there will be 100 more Brendan Eichs before one Condi Rice gets targeted. I'd like to be wrong.

EDIT: I might be wrong! http://www.drop-dropbox.com/

[compromise]

Box.com is better than Dropbox.

[WM_in_MO]

Dropping dropbox...

[CPUd]

http://www.drop-dropbox.com/

This is deeply disturbing, and anyone — or any business — who values ethics should be concerned.

Why is this? Because she was a part of the Bush administration? Because she is a Republican and we should hate Republicans? I mean, come on, isn't Al Gore on Apple's Board? He's no saint!

No. This is not an issue of partisanship. It makes sense that Dropbox would want an accomplished, high-level, well-connected individual on their Board of Directors as they prepare for their IPO. There is no doubt that Condoleezza Rice is an extremely brilliant and accomplished individual, having obtained her Masters degree at only age 20 (and a number of other impressive accomplishments).

Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox's Board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox's commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics. When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment.

...

[enhanced_deficit]

Bit off topic but had SWC Condi switched sides and now supported democrats/dronebag?