Controversial Uber executive is out
Emil Michael, Uber’s senior vice-president of business and chief executive Travis Kalanick’s right-hand man, has left the embattled ride-hailing company, according to an email he sent Monday to employees.
It is unclear whether Michael was fired or resigned. An Uber spokesperson confirmed that he is no longer with the company, but declined to comment further.
In the email, initially obtained by The New York Times and independently verified by a person familiar with the matter, Michael said that Sunday was his last day, and that David Richter, Uber’s current vicepresident of strategic initiatives, would replace him.
His email did not give a reason for his leaving.
Michael’s departure was foreshadowed on Sunday when Uber’s board of directors convened in Los Angeles to vote on a series of recommendations about Uber’s corporate culture. The suggestions — which were drafted by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as part of a company investigation into complaints of widespread harassment inside the company — reportedly included forcing out Michael and ordering Kalanick to take a leave of absence.
A spokesperson for the San Francisco firm confirmed that the board met with Holder and Tammy Albarran, both partners with Covington & Burling, the law firm hired to conduct the investigation.
Board members voted unanimously to adopt all of the firm’s recommendations, which will be released to employees Tuesday, the spokesperson said.
He would not comment on any further actions taken by the board, including whether it discussed the future of Kalanick.
Michael has been at the centre of a number of Uber’s scandals, such as in 2014 when he told a BuzzFeed journalist that the company should spend millions of dollars to investigate journalists who were critical of the firm. He reportedly played a role in an incident in which Uber executives — including Eric Alexander, who was recently fired — obtained the medical records of a passenger who was raped by a driver in India.
Throughout the crises, Michael has had Kalanick’s unwavering support. At one point both executives were seen as untouchable because many had credited their brash and hypercompetitive leadership style for producing Uber’s early success.
Uber’s recent string of scandals left both executives vulnerable, though.
According to multiple news reports, Holder’s advice included ordering Kalanick to step down temporarily and forcing out Michael.
Under Kalanick, Uber has shaken up the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and become the world’s most valuable startup. Uber’s valuation has climbed to nearly $70 billion.
But Kalanick has acknowledged his management style needs improvement. The 40-year-old CEO said earlier this year that he needed to “fundamentally change and grow up.”
In February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote on a blog that she had been propositioned by her boss in a series of messages on her first day of work and that superiors ignored her complaints. Uber set up a hotline for complaints after that and hired the law firm Perkins Coie to investigate.
That firm checked into 215 complaints, with 57 still under investigation.
Uber has been plagued by more than sexual harassment complaints in recent months. It has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation that it used a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it was breaking local laws.
Stepping down as CEO, even temporarily, would be a major setback for Kalanick, who founded the company in 2009 and has been running it ever since — despite mounting criticism over the hard-charging office environment he helped create.
Uber announced last week that it fired 20 employees for harassment problems after a separate investigation by a different law firm.
Kalanick lost his temper earlier this year in an argument with an Uber driver who was complaining about pay, and the CEO’s profanity-laced comments were caught on video.
In a March conference call with reporters after that incident, board member Arianna Huffington expressed confidence that Kalanick would evolve into a better leader. But Huffington, a founder of Huffington Post, suggested time might be running out.
He’s a “scrappy entrepreneur,” she said during the call, but one who needed to bring “changes in himself and in the way he leads.”
The company has faced high turnover in its top ranks. In March, Uber’s president, Jeff Jones, resigned after less than a year on the job. He said his “beliefs and approach to leadership” were “inconsistent” with those of the company.