Uber Technologies Inc director David Bonderman on Tuesday said that he has resigned from the company’s board following a remark he made during a staff meeting that was widely seen as offensive to women.
Bonderman’s ill-timed remark came during an all-staff meeting on Tuesday to discuss how the ride-services company plans to transform itself following a probe into sexual harassment at the company.
Bonderman said in a statement sent to reporters that he did not want his comments to create a distraction for Uber, which is working to rid its culture of sexual harassment and discrimination.
Photo: Reuters
His resignation from the board was to be effective from yesterday morning.
During the meeting, Uber board member Arianna Huffington spoke to employees about the importance of adding more women to the board of directors.
“There’s a lot of data that shows when there’s one woman on the board, it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board,” Huffington said.
“Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking,” Bonderman said.
The comment was disclosed through a recording of the meeting that was published by Yahoo.
An Uber spokesman verified the authenticity and accuracy of the recording.
Bonderman, who is a founder of private equity firm TPG Capital LLP, an Uber investor, shortly after wrote an e-mail to Uber staff to apologize.
In his resignation statement that followed in the evening, Bonderman reiterated his regret, calling his remarks “careless, inappropriate and inexcusable” and “the opposite of what I intended.”
“I take full responsibility for that,” he said. “I need to hold myself to the same standards that we’re asking Uber to adopt.”
Bonderman and other board members had joined the staff meeting to lay out recommendations from an investigation into sexual harassment, diversity, inclusion and other employee concerns led by former US attorney general Eric Holder.
Holder's recommendations, which were unanimously adopted by the board on Sunday, call for reducing Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick's sweeping authority at the firm, and instituting more controls over spending, human resources and the behavior of managers.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS