After being in cruise control, Uber starts fresh trip with new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi
Uber has chosen Dara Khosrowshahi, the Chief Executive of travel company Expedia Inc, as its CEO on Sunday, according to multiple reports from publications like Reuters, NYTimes, and Recode. YourStory has reached out to Uber for comment and we will update the story, as and when they respond.
According to Reuters, the Uber board of directors had been meeting daily and deliberated on its pick for CEO throughout the weekend. A spokeswoman had told Reuters on Sunday that the board had voted but was declining to disclose its choice publicly until after informing employees.
Khosrowshahi, who has run Expedia for 12 years, was not known to the public to be among the top candidates for the job.
He beat out Jeff Immelt, Chairman of General Electric Co and one of the finalists for the job, who said earlier on Sunday he was no longer in the running. Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, had also been a leading candidate, according to sources close to the process.Whitman had last month denied having any interest in the job.
But according to NYTimes report, the board of directors and executives inside of Uber had been leaning toward Whitman. But matters changed quickly over the course of Sunday afternoon, as directors and Whitman could not agree on terms in which she would take over as chief executive, the people said.
Immelt, on the other hand, recently took to Twitter to express his decision.
Ultimately, the board decided on the third candidate, Khosrowshahi.
Going from self-driving to a new human guided trip?
In light of multiple allegations over the past year, Uber has lost many high profile executives and Travis Kalanick, Co-founder of Uber, had to step down as CEO. This had prompted many to co-relate this with Uber's ambitions in the self-driving space.
Reuters noted that among Khosrowshahi's first tasks at Uber would be filling a slew of executive vacancies, including those of Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. In the absence of top leadership, Uber has been run by a 13-person committee.
According to Expedia Inc's website, Khosrowshahi has served as a member of Expedia’s Board of Directors since completion of Expedia’s spin-off from IAC/InterActiveCorp in August 2015. Under his leadership, Expedia, Inc. has grown to become one of the largest online travel companies in the world.
During his tenure as Expedia’s CEO, Khosrowshahi also served for a period as President of Brand Expedia business. Immediately prior to the IAC/Expedia spin-off, Khosrowshahi was CEO of IAC Travel, a division of IAC, where he was instrumental in the initial expansion of IAC’s portfolio of travel brands, which now comprise Expedia Inc.
Before that, he had held a series of executive roles at IAC, including serving as its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as Executive Vice President of Operations and Strategic Planning, and as president of USA Networks Interactive, a division of IAC.
Prior to joining IAC, Khosrowshahi worked at Allen & Company LLC from 1991 to 1998, where he served as Vice President from 1995 to 1998. Khosrowshahi received a BA degree in Engineering from Brown University and is currently a member of the boards of directors of Fanatics Inc. and The New York Times Company, and of the supervisory board of trivago, N.V., a majority-owned subsidiary of Expedia.