Doctoroff heads to Google to run Sidewalk Lab

Former deputy mayor will lead new arm for urban innovation

Dan Doctoroff (Photo: Erin Patrice O’Brien)
Dan Doctoroff (Photo: Erin Patrice O’Brien)

Dan Doctoroff, former CEO of Bloomberg LP and deputy mayor for economic development under Michael Bloomberg, is heading to Google to head up a new urban innovation venture called Sidewalk Lab.

The independent company, jointly conceived by Doctoroff and Google CEO Larry Page, will be dedicated to innovating technologies to improve urban life, according to the New York Times. It will do this through inventing technologies itself, buying technologies, and investing in partnerships.

“It’s going to evolve and we’re just starting up,” Doctoroff said.

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Page called the investment in Sidewalk Lab “relatively modest,” and compared it to some of Google’s other side ventures, including Calico, a pharmaceutical research company, and GoogleX, which came up with Google’s famous self-driving vehicles.

Primary aims for Sidewalk Lab will include cutting pollution, curbing energy use, improving transportation and reducing the expense of city living. The venture will be based in New York.

Doctoroff  left Bloomberg last year after Michael Bloomberg decided he wanted to retake control of the company. [NYT] — Tess Hofmann