Uber hires Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi as new chief executive
The taxi firm looks to fresh leadership to recover from the fallout over controversial co-founder Travis Kalanick's ousting.
Monday 28 August 2017 15:16, UK
Uber has picked former Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi as its new chief executive to lead the firm out of a nearly year-long crisis.
Mr Khosrowshahi will take on the tasks of repairing frayed relations with investors and making the business profitable after seven years of losses.
He replaces co-founder Travis Kalanick, who was .
The taxi company's board of directors voted to pick Mr Khosrowshahi on Sunday, but an announcement has not yet been made publicly.
A Silicon Valley outsider, Mr Khosrowshahi beat chairman of General Electric Jeff Immelt to the top job.
He also fought off competition from Hewlett Packard Enterprise chief executive Meg Whitman, who was a leading candidate, according to several sources familiar with the recruitment. Ms Whitman denied having any interest in the job.
The Iranian-American businessman was the highest paid chief executive in the US in 2015, and saw Expedia's annual revenue double under his leadership.
He led a string of acquisitions to build an online travel empire, buying Airbnb rival HomeAway Inc for $3.9bn (£3bn) and Orbitz Worldwide Inc for $1.3bn (£1bn).
But among his first jobs at Uber will be filling a slew of executive vacancies, including chief financial officer and chief operation officer.
In the absence of top leadership, Uber has been run by a 13-person committee.
It is unclear what role Mr Kalanick will play in Uber's future. He has previously vowed to "guide Uber into its next phase of growth and ensure its continued success".