Uber Technologies Inc on Sunday chose Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of travel company Expedia Inc, as its chief executive, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter, handing him the challenge of leading the ride-services company out of a nearly year-long crisis.
Khosrowshahi, 48, would take on the daunting task of mending Uber’s image, repairing frayed relations among investors, rebuilding employee morale and creating a profitable business after seven years of losses.
In Khosrowshahi, Uber’s board has picked an executive with a track record of driving growth while also delivering profits — precisely what the unprofitable Uber needs to satisfy investors.
He has also proven capable of making Expedia the leader in another industry full of change and competition — online travel.
However, he would also have to contend with the legacy of Travis Kalanick, Uber’s pugnacious cofounder, who was ousted as chief executive officer in June after shareholders representing about 40 percent of the company’s voting power signed a letter asking him to step down amid growing concern over his behavior and the behavior of senior managers under him.
The Uber board of directors has been meeting daily and deliberated on its pick for chief executive throughout the weekend.
A spokeswoman on Sunday said that the board had voted, but was declining to disclose its choice publicly until after informing employees.
An Uber spokesman and an Expedia spokeswoman declined to comment. Khosrowshahi did not immediately respond to requests for comment through e-mail and on Twitter.
Khosrowshahi, who has run Expedia for 12 years, was not known to the public to be among the top candidates for the job.
He beat out General Electric Co chairman Jeff Immelt, one of the finalists for the job, who earlier on Sunday said he was no longer in the running.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co chief executive Meg Whitman had also been a leading candidate, according to sources close to the process.
Whitman last month denied having any interest in the job.
Unlike Immelt and Whitman, Khosrowshahi is not a fixture in the celebrity executive community, and since Expedia is based in Bellevue, Washington, he is a Silicon Valley outsider, offering a contrast to the “tech bro” culture Kalanick established at Uber.
The Iranian-American businessman came to the US as a child in 1978 with his parents following the Iranian Revolution. He received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Brown University and got his start at investment bank Allen and Co.
Khosrowshahi has certainly done well for himself — in 2015 he was the highest-paid chief executive in the US, mainly because of a nearly US$91 million stock option grant.
He is also on the board of the New York Times Co and sports merchandise company Fanatics Inc.
Under Khosrowshahi’s leadership, Expedia more than doubled its annual revenue since 2012 to nearly US$8.8 billion last year. The company reported net income of US$281.8 million for last year.
“Analysts are focused on margins. I am focused on growth,” Khosrowshahi said in an interview with CNBC in May.
He led Expedia through a string of acquisitions since 2014, buying Airbnb rival HomeAway Inc for US$3.9 billion, Orbitz Worldwide Inc for US$1.3 billion and Travelocity for US$280 million, cobbling together an online travel empire.
Expedia is the world’s largest online travel agency by bookings.
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