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Jeff Jones quit, citing differences over “beliefs and approach to leadership”

Jeff Jones quit Uber in March 2017 after less than a year as President of the company. He explained his departure in a statement:

It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber, and I can no longer continue as president.

Jones had previously served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Target.

Commenting on Jones’ departure, then-CEO Travis Kalanick remarked that “It is unfortunate that [Jones’ departure] was announced through the press.”

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VP of Product and Growth Ed Baker resigned

Ed Baker, who served as Uber’s VP of Product and Growth, resigned after more than three years at Uber. Others at Uber had complained about his behavior. Recode explained:

For example, one person anonymously tipped off board member Arianna Huffington — who is one of the people conducting a wider-ranging investigation into sexism and sexual harassment at the company — via an email that Baker had engaged in a sexual encounter with another employee.

Specifically, said sources, Baker was seen “making out” at an internal Uber event held in Miami three years ago, which was seen by some employees. There was no suggestion of any sexual harassment on his part and the encounter was apparently consensual.

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Fired SVP of Engineering Amit Sighal over allegations of sexual harassment

Amit Sighal joined Uber in January 2017 as SVP of Engineering. The next month, Uber asked him to leave. The stated reason was that he reportedly failed to disclose to Uber a “credible” sexual harassment allegation made against him while at Google.

Sighal had previously worked at Google where he was a “Google Fellow” (a prestigious and limited position) and served as the head of Google’s core search ranking team. Some speculated that he left Google due to the same sexual harassment allegation that caused concern at Uber.

Details from Quartz

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Morale dropped during Holder investigation

Business Insider reports that as Eric Holder investigated activities at Uber, employee morale dropped. His investigation included interviewing employees and reading through emails and chat records. BI says morale was “went from low to ‘rock bottom'” quoting one former executive, who added that “People were confused, disappointed, angry.”

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Salle Yoo demanded $100 million when leaving Uber, got most of it

Business Insider reports that when then-General Counsel Salle Yoo prepared to leave Uber, she sought a $100 million severance package, entailing the repurchase of her Uber shares. Travis Kalanick thought that amount was excessive, but BI says the final amount was “tens of millions” although less than 2/3 of her requested amount.

BI reported Yoo grounding her demand in thoughts about gender:

Yoo thought it was only fair because she had seen male executives ask for huge exit packages and get them. She had spent her career at Uber encouraging women to lean in. So she took her own advice, opened her negotiations with Kalanick by shooting high and held her breath.

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Salle Yoo questioned Kalanick’s handling of Levandowski

In addition to insisting that Uber hire outside investigators to check what improper information Otto held, then-General Counsel Salle Yoo questioned other aspects of Kalanick’s handling of that acquisition. Business Insider explains that she said she wanted Uber to fire Levandowski long before the company did so, and also that she was excluded from critical discussions about Levandowski. Business Insider reports that these disagreements led to Yoo’s departure from Uber.

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Company leaders did not read report about confidential material held by Otto

Uber then-General Counsel Salle Yoo had insisted that Uber hire outside investigators to check for confidential information improperly held by Otto, before Uber acquired Otto. The resulting report revealed that Otto CEO Anthony Levandowski had copied Google information. But Uber leaders never saw the report because it was sent to outside counsel. Instead, they learned about the report only incidental to Google’s litigation against Uber alleging theft of Google secrets.

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Regulators sued Uber for failing to disclose data breaches

After a data breach in which hackers stole data from about 600,000 drivers globally, for which Uber paid a ransom to hackers but did not notify affected drivers, regulators pursued Uber’s violation of applicable law, including state laws about notifying those subject to data breaches.

  • The FTC filed a revised complaint adding additional concerns to a prior action against Uber. Uber responded by agreeing to expand its prior settlement with the FTC over charges that it deceived consumers about its privacy and data security practices. The FTC specifically criticized Uber for failing to disclose the breach to the FTC until November 2017, fully a year after the breach occurred, even though the FTC was already investigating other Uber data security practices.
  • Pennsylvania sued, threatening a penalty of up to $13.5 million ($1000 for each of the 13,500 Pennsylvania drivers affected).
  • The city of Chicago also sued (complaint), seeking $10,000 per day for each day that Uber violated the state’s disclosure ordinance, as well as $50,000 for violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act.
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