Amidst multiple issues hitting the ride-hailing firm, Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber has taken a leave of absence as the company focuses on a complete overhaul of its upper management. There is no indication on when he will be back but one thing is for sure, he will have less power at the firm as more independent members are brought in.
Whilst the firm is in the midst of restructuring the company whilst facing allegations of sexual harassment on Tuesday, David Bonderman who was on the board of Uber resigned due to a bad joke he made during a company-wide meeting which was seen as disrespectful to women. His reason for resigning came after he apologised to all the staff at Uber as well as to fellow board member, Ariana Huffington, about his poor choice of words during the meeting.
“Uber is examining the issues with its culture, and making significant changes and working to right what has been done wrong, which is extremely important for the future of the company. I do not want my comments to create a distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud. I need to hold myself to the same standards that we’re asking Uber to adopt,” said David Bonderman in a statement to the Washington Post.
Travis’ leave of absence also came in the midst of him losing his mother in a boating accident recently.
Breaking: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick memo to employees on his leave of absence. Full text. @NPR pic.twitter.com/tCE4bZ2C0u
— Aarti Shahani (@aarti411) June 13, 2017
Stripping more authority from Travis was one of the recommendations by Holder’s report. After the expose by Susan Fowler, a former engineer at Uber, on her blog about sexual harassment at Uber, Uber has decided to hire Eric Holder, a former attorney general and his law firm to perform an inquiry into the company. Holder recently released the full report of his inquiry which details out recommendations for change at Uber.
You can read the full report here.
