It’s general cognitive ability, general thinking and also the ability to clearly articulate ideas to other people. “Which is great practice for business because you’re driven to much more vigorous analysis. “Philosophy is very much concerned with the form of argument itself and the use of language and the clarity and perspicuity of one’s arguments,” Butterfield says. He then went to the University of Victoria and in 1996 completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy before getting a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in 1998. (Its School Ties magazine includes updates on this famous alumni’s successes.) In 1977, the family moved to Victoria and Butterfield (after officially changing his name to Stewart) attended the prestigious St. The pair went west and settled in Lund, where 500 hippies had set up a commune. Once in Canada, he met Stewart’s mother, Norma. His father, David Butterfield, now a local developer, had fled to Quebec from the base where he was serving in North Carolina to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War. Along with his openness and his startup wins, his path from hippie-commune child to cover-boy entrepreneur makes for an irresistible success story.īutterfield was born as Dharma in 1973 in the fishing village of Lund, B.C. Time Magazine named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” and he’s one of BusinessWeek‘s “Top 50 Leaders.” He’s appeared on the cover of Newsweek and recently made headlines again when he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to “congratulate” Microsoft on its competing chat app. There are the frequent f-bombs, the time he told the New York Times that Slack was worth $3 billion “because people say it is,” and the story in the Financial Review, in which he said, “Everyone kisses my arse … because I’m the CEO.” Which may be why Slack’s head of PR, Julia Blystone, stays on the line for the entirety of my interview with him.īut even with Blystone in the background, Butterfield seems relaxed and forthcoming about the challenges at Slack, the fallout after the $20-million sale of Flickr (his photo-sharing site) to Yahoo in 2005, and his own difficulties being a leader.īutterfield is a media darling.

S tewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack, has a history of being unusually candid when talking to the media.

Stewart slack