Uber picks Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO, replacing Travis Kalanick

Uber has been seeking to replace ousted CEO and company co-founder Travis Kalanick, who left in June amid allegations of rampant sexual harassment and bullying of employees, deceit and corporate espionage.

Mr Khosrowshahi has been CEO of Expedia since August of 2015.

The company’s website says it has grown to become one of the largest online travel companies in the world under his leadership.

He faces the difficult task of changing Uber’s culture that has included sexual harassment and allegations of deceit and corporate espionage.

Brief to transform Uber’s toxic workplace culture

Mr Kalanick announced in June that he would take a leave of absence for an unspecified period and let his leadership team run Uber while he was gone.

His departure came after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler in February wrote a 3,000-word blog post detailing allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination during her year at the company.

She claimed that on her first day as a programmer and engineer, her manager sexually propositioned her over the company’s internal chat system, but management dismissed her concerns.

Between February and March, a number of senior members of Uber’s team quit, including president Jeff Jones.

In June Mr Kalanick told employees he needed time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident.

But he also took responsibility for the company’s current situation saying he needed “to become a better leader”.

Uber’s board said it would review his responsibilities and reassign some to others and continue its search for a chief operating officer with a background in diversity and inclusion.

After conducting interviews with more than 200 former and current employees, former US Attorney Eric Holder released a list of recommendations to improve Uber’s toxic workplace culture.

The report made it clear Uber was not doing enough to protect workers from sexual harassment and retaliation, noting that company policies needed to state directly that such conduct was prohibited… [click to read the full article]