General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt is reportedly one of fewer than six candidates being considered to take over Uber from founder Travis Kalanick.
Uber is narrowing its search for a new CEO to replace ousted founder Travis Kalanick, reportedly placing outgoing General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt on a short list of possible candidates.
Immelt, who already is scheduled to step down from his role as chief executive of GE next week, is one of fewer than six people on the Uber list, Bloomberg reported. That means Uber is honing in on the executive who will be tasked with turning around the ride-hailing company’s aggressive culture and preparing it for an eventual IPO.
Apparently that massive responsibility won’ t fall on Meg Whitman, current CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Her name had been floated this week as a top contender for the Uber chief executive role, but Whitman took to Twitter on Thursday night to put those rumors to rest.
“Normally I do not comment on rumors, but the speculation about my future and Uber has become a distraction”, Whitman tweeted, in a three-part tweetstorm. “So let me make this as clear as I can. I am fully committed to HPE and plan to remain the company’s CEO. We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber’s CEO will not be Meg Whitman.”
Uber’s board met Thursday night to discuss the search, and the company hopes to appoint a new CEO by early September, Bloomberg reported. There’s an Uber board subcommittee managing the CEO search, which includes input from Kalanick, Benchmark partner Matt Cohler, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Nestle executive Wan Ling Martello and TPG partner David Trujillo.
Whoever steps in to lead the global ride-hailing empire worth nearly $70 billion will be accepting a massive undertaking. The company is fraught with problems that have eroded its public image in recent months. Uber is embroiled in messy litigation with rival Waymo over its self-driving car trade secrets, the company is under investigation by the U. S. Justice Department over its use of a secretive software that helped drivers evade law enforcement officials, and reports of sexual harassment, sexism and other unprofessional behavior at the company recently led to the firing of 20 employees.
The turmoil prompted investors to demand Kalanick’s resignation, which he gave last month. But to make matters even more complicated for the CEO who will replace him, Kalanick remains a prominent board member and shareholder, opening up the possibility that Uber’s next chief executive will have Kalanick breathing down his or her neck.
