Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshah has been chose to lead Uber.
ExpediaUber’s contentious search for a new CEO appears to be over.
The board of directors of the ride-hailing startup chose Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of online travel company Expedia, to fill the position, The New York Times reported late Sunday. Khosrowshahi, who has been president and chief executive of Expedia since 2005, was one of three candidates the board was considering, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources.
Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hire would end a tumultuous search for an executive to fill the position, which has been vacant since co-founder Travis Kalanick was forced out of the job two months ago. Earlier Sunday, the board’s pool of candidates narrowed when former GE chief Jeff Immelt, who was considered a front-runner, announced by tweet that he had withdrawn his name from consideration.
Kalanick resigned from his role in June after a slew of scandals at the San Francisco-based startup. More than 20 employees were fired after an investigation into sexual harassment allegations and the company is defending itself against a trade-secret theft lawsuit from Waymo, a self-driving car business run by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
The company’s problems started snowballing in February when former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a blog post titled “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber.” She wrote about sexual harassment, “a game-of-thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management,” and gender bias.
Meg Whitman, currently head of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and formerly of eBay, was also been mentioned as a possible candidate for the position, but Whitman put that speculation to rest in late July when she proclaimed “Uber’s CEO will not be Meg Whitman.”
Complicating the hunt for a new CEO were rumors that Kalanick was plotting a return to Uber as CEO — something the company has flatly denied.
Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here’s your place for the lighter side of tech.
Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.
