Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Adnan Abidi / Reuters
Uber said on Tuesday that its business is growing despite the unrelenting public relations crises it’s faced this year. The company is dealing with fallout from systemic sexism allegations, a damning lawsuit over whether it stole key self-driving technology from a competitor, and high executive turnover as the company searches for a No. 2 to CEO Travis Kalanick.
On a call with reporters Tuesday, Rachel Holt, the head of Uber’s US and Canada business, said the ride-hail company has “grown faster in the first 10 weeks of 2017 than the first 10 weeks of 2016.” “Last week riders in the US took more trips with Uber than ever before,” she said.
Arianna Huffington, who sits on Uber’s board and is on a subcommittee that will review results of the company’s internal investigation into claims of rampant sexism, said “change starts at the top” and praised Kalanick, who admitted last month that he needs “leadership help.” Asked if the board would consider whether Kalanick should step down, Huffington said she is “a big believer in people, leaders, companies being allowed to evolve.”
“It’s clear that both Uber and the ridesharing industry would not be where we are today without Travis,” Huffington said. “I have seen personally Travis’s evolution.”
2017 has proved to be a year of continued turmoil for Uber. In January, Kalanick dropped out of President Trump’s economic advisory group before its first meeting after protests outside its headquarters, employee dissent and a #DeleteUber backlash. (The New York Times reported that about 200,000 users deleted their accounts.) On Feb. 19, a female ex-engineer posted a viral blog detailing systemic sexism at the company. In response, Uber brought on former attorney general Eric Holder to lead an investigation into its workplace environment, and Kalanick apologized to employees and promised Uber would “do better.” That same week, more than 100 of Uber’s female engineers met with Kalanick and a member of group told him, “everyone who’s in these rooms now … believes that there is a systemic problem here,” according to leaked audio obtained by BuzzFeed.
Kalanick found himself apologizing to his staff once again on Feb. 28, after Bloomberg published video of him yelling at one of the company’s drivers during an argument over fares. “To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement,” Kalanick said.
And on Sunday, Uber said its president of ride-sharing, Jeff Jones, had resigned. Jones came to Uber just six months ago from Target, where he helped rebuild the company’s image after hackers stole millions of credit card numbers from the retailer in December 2013. As president of Uber’s main business, Jones was tasked with running the logistics of ride-hailing, and improving Uber’s relationship with its drivers. He joins several other executives who have jumped ship recently. Just in the last three months, Uber has lost Brian McClendon (vice president of maps), Ed Baker (vice president of product and growth), Amit Singhal (senior vice president of engineering, who left related to revelations he did not disclose a sexual harassment allegation while at his previous employer, Google), Gary Marcus (the new head of its artificial intelligence lab), and Raffi Krikorian (a director and former leader of its self-driving car program).
This is a developing story; further details to follow.
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