Uber board to discuss CEO absence, policy changes
SAN FRANCISCO: Uber Technologies Inc’s board will discuss chief executive Travis Kalanick temporarily stepping away from the embattled ridehailing firm and consider sweeping changes to the company’s management practices at a meeting, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The source said it is not clear that the board will make any decision to change Kalanick’s role. The board is expected to adopt a number of internal policy and management changes recommended by outside attorneys hired to investigate sexual harassment and the firm’s broader culture. The outside lawyers made no recommendation about Kalanick.
The meeting, which Uber has not publicised, could be a pivotal moment for the world’s most valuable venture-backed private company, which has upended the tightly regulated taxi industry in many countries but has run into legal trouble with a rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and the way it handles employees and drivers.
At the meeting, according to two people familiar with the matter, the seven voting members of Uber’s board, including Kalanick, are expected to vote on recommendations made by the law firm of former US Attorney General Eric Holder, which conducted a review of the company’s policies and culture.
The review was launched in February after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and the lack of a suitable response by senior managers. Fowler now works for digital payments company Stripe.
Uber’s board will likely tell employees and the public of its decisions by Tuesday, one of the sources said.
An Uber spokesman had no comment. Neither Kalanick nor Holder’s law firm, Covington & Burling, immediately responded to requests for comment late Saturday. Kalanick has developed a reputation as an abrasive leader, and his approach has rubbed off on his company.
The 40-year- old executive was captured on video in February berating an Uber driver.
Uber board member Arianna Huffington said in March that Kalanick needed to change his leadership style from that of a “scrappy entrepreneur” to be more like a “leader of a major global company.” The board has been looking for a chief operating officer to help Kalanick run the company since March. — Reuters