Uber, US based cab hailing startup, has elected a new chief executive officer to lead the company. Dara Khosrowshahi, who has been the CEO of online travel business Expedia for the past 12 years has officially been offered the post as the new CEO of Uber.
Dara Khosrowshahi emigrated to the US in 1978 from Iran following the Iranian Revolution and took over the reigns of Expedia in 2005. Expedia, under his leadership, grew to become a $23 billion giant with a presence all across the world. The online travel business is known for their work life balance and diversity. According to company data, 51% of their US employees are female and 33% leadership roles are taken up by women. Khosrowshahi has agreed that the numbers, although compares well with their peers, are still not high enough.
Former CEO and cofounder of the company Travis Kalanick was asked to step down following the various scandals that surrounded the company. One of the allegations the company faced was discrimination against women at the workspace. Although Dara Khosrowshashi will be a step up from the former CEO, the bar set for diversity and inclusion is still very low considering the board was unable to hire a woman for the lead role.
In a press conference last year Khosrowshahi said they need to attract, hire, engage and promote talent of all kinds all around the world. “We believe that by enriching the diversity of our work force across all dimensions, including gender, we achieve the most enriched outcomes,” he added. Before Khosrowshashi, HP CEO Meg Whitman along with former GE CEO Jeffery Immelt were considered for the job. After Kalanick’s resignation, many hoped that the next CEO would be a woman, which would be a symbolic choice for a company that is grappling with its “bro” culture. Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was also considered for the position as she takes a firm social standing on diversity and has the right leadership experience.
In recent times many women have come forward speaking out against discrimination and harassment in the tech industry with multiple leaders stepping down from their posts. India, which is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, on the other hand, has been seeing an increase in women lead companies in the startup world such as Richa kar led Zivame, Suchi Mukherjee led Limeroad and Radhika Aggarwal led ShopClues. Anisha Singh who is the founder of MyDala.com will also be seen mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs on an upcoming reality show on MTV called Dropout. Indira Nooyi, born in Madras, is currently ranked as the 13th most powerful women in the world and heads the world’s second largest food and beverage company, Pepsi Co. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, a Bengaluru based biotechnology company and is an independent director of IT giant Infosys.
Khosrowshahi, the soon to be former CEO of Expedia, which does not have a gender pay gap and women in its workforce earn $1 for every $1 paid to men in equivalent roles, will be tasked with turning around Uber’s culture, which has been called hostile to women. More than 20 employees were terminated from Uber as a result of an internal investigation with sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation as reasons for many of the firings. The internal investigation also released a 13 page report with recommendations on how to improve the way Uber treats its employees and police reckless behavior within the company. Khosrowshahi’s job would be to follow the recommendations to avoid any more scandals.
