Uber is looking to replace some top executives as well as find and appoint a new CFO and new top legal talent, according to a recent report from recode which cites sources close to the matter. Uber has been without an official and permanent CFO since 2015, and the person appointed to the position temporarily left earlier this year so for at least a few months, Uber has had no finance head at all. Taking that into consideration it isn’t really surprising that the company is looking to find someone who fits the role and offer them the position, but it might come as a bit more of a surprise that it may be looking to replace some more high-level executives.
Then again, perhaps not as it’s reported that any high-level executives that could be replaced are likely to be those that were closer to Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick, which left the company earlier this year as well due to the legal issues between Uber and Waymo revolving around the company’s self-driving car technology. At this point in time it hasn’t been mentioned who else might be replaced, but it looks as though the decisions to bring in new people to fill specific positions are coming from Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, and his board.
These decisions come as Uber looks to continue making some big changes that will ultimately lead to a shift in direction that will get the company back on track, all while it looks to bring in additional top legal talent likely before the Waymo case is supposed to start next month. There’s no guarantee that Uber will find the people it wants or needs before the trial begins but it’s reported that Uber is already looking for someone to take the position of its General Counsel, with Burke Norton who was previously an executive at Expedia and is currently holding the position of Chief Legal Officer at Salesforce as a potential candidate. It’s also said that Uber is searching for people to fill the roles of Chief of Engineering and a Head of Marketing. Whether or not Uber finds people to fill all these roles quickly or not is unclear for now, but what is clear is that Uber seems to be set on refreshing a fairly sizable portion of its top positions.