Uber considering the future of CEO Travis Kalanick

The position of Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, is reportedly under threat after the ride sharing giant’s board met on Sunday night. However, no details of the meeting – concerning Kalanick’s future – have been revealed.

On top of this, the board has voted on a review of it’s policies and corporate culture based on the recommendations of the former US attorney general Eric Holder following the sexual harassment scandal – revealed by Uber engineer Susan Fowler in February.

>See also: Italy bans Uber: a ‘slap in the face’ to Italian citizens

In the subsequent months this has lead to 20 employees being fired, and others resigning. Last week Uber’s finance chief, Gautam Gupta, said he was leaving, preceding New York general manager, Josh Mohrer, and the head of Uber’s self-driving unit, Anthony Levandowski, out of the door.

It was also reported in The New York Times that Holder recommended that Emil Michael, Uber’s senior vice-president of business and an ally of Kalanick should leave the company.

And while Uber told the BBC that “the board unanimously voted to adopt all the recommendations of the Holder Report. The recommendations will be released to the employees on Tuesday”, it is not clear exactly what these recommendations are.

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Concerning Kalanick, it is not clear whether he could take some time away from Uber and return in a capacity with less authority, or whether he would remain as chief executive but be held accountable on a much more scrutinised level, suggested a report from Reuters news agency.

Pressure has continued to mount on Kalanick after a video emerged of him verbally attacking an Uber driver. In the aftermath he said “I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.” Following this Uber board member Arianna Huffington said Kalanick needed to change his leadership style from “scrappy entrepreneur” to a “leader of a major global company”.

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Nick Ismail

Nick Ismail is a former editor for Information Age (from 2018 to 2022) before moving on to become Global Head of Brand Journalism at HCLTech. He has a particular interest in smart technologies, AI and...

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