[22], In November 2019, Khosrowshahi caused controversy in an interview with Axios on HBO, when he compared the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi to the death of Elaine Herzberg by an Uber self-driving car in 2018. Isnt this fundamentally at odds with treating workers humanely? Dont worry about a thing. , Those are times when Im tougher on the team, when I tell my team to be tougher on their team when things are great because when things are great is when you loosen up; when you lose discipline; when you let things go; when youre not as demanding on yourself or your team as you should be. You can ring my bell: Mr. Khosrowshahi applauding with NYSE president Stacey Cunningham, second from left, and Uber chief legal officer Tony West, center, as Uber board member Ryan Graves, right, does the deed. Uber insiders say that may be just what the ride-hailing service needs. Would Mr. Khosrowshahi want one of his own children to drive for Uber? I dont think that investors necessarily love them one way or the other, he said, sipping a glass of California cabernet sauvignon, his Dutch shepherd, Loki, curled at his feet. Im hoping that that connection can come back again.. I do think theres power in a name, he said. Continue reading for his edited remarks and watch the GeekWire Summit fireside chat and listen to the podcast below. Mr. Khosrowshahi demurred, saying that Proposition 22, a ballot measure in California that allows gig economy companies to keep treating drivers as independent contractors, never could have passed in the bluest of blue states unless a lot of drivers supported it. All rights reserved. When his father returned to Iran to try to get his own father out, he was not allowed to leave the country for five years and missed Daras high school graduation. Dara Khosrowshahi ( Persian: , Persian pronunciation: [d' xoso'hi]; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Silicon Valley investor Ali Rowghani was born in Iran. The two men have a long professional history, having worked together at Expedia when Mr Khosrowshahi was chief executive of the travel company. This shows that he is power-hungry and wants to become bigger and stronger. Mr. Khosrowshahis wife, Sydney Shapiro, looked across the kitchen table at her husband with a sultry Lauren Bacall smile. Honestly, I didnt spend a lot of time figuring it out. Were a lot of brands that came together through mergers and acquisitions and integration and M&A and innovation are not friends. Maureen Dowd: Travis Kalanick is crazier than Travis Bickle. President Biden named Lina Khan, a fan of ratcheting up regulations on tech giants, as the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission and signed an executive order zeroing in on anticompetitive practices. [5][4] In 1982, when Khosrowshahi was 13 years old, his father went to Iran to care for his grandfather. It is something near and dear toKhosrowshahi's heart, so I would not be surprised if "improving the culture" at Uber is number one on his own list. Khosrowshahi's LinkedIn profile states that he focuses on "driving innovation and positioning the Expedia brand for further international growth." Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggregators. Welcome back! We have all these independent units all these independent brands that are doing their own thing. What Is Creator Economy & How Is It Driving Indias GDP? How do today's most influential C-suite . I think were neighbors at this point and well look over the fence and wave at them and maybe theyll notice us waving, maybe they wont, he said. He is putting it on the table for all to see. Khosrowshahi was crucial to those talks, Ting says, and sought to treat Waymo more like a friend than a foe. In summary, on top of being a successful Iranian immigrant, with these five leadership actions Khosrowshahi could be redefining what it means to be a CEO while redefining the culture and organizational purpose of Uber itself. According to Fortune, Khosrowshahi's 2015 total pay package was approximately 4,756 times that of his team at Expedia. Khosrowshahi said his priorities were to meet with the leadership team and fill the many management holes. If there is a genius coder who is happier coding from Colorado and can come into the office once in a while to get to know his colleagues, its cool.. Not only would his leadership team have gender parity, he would be signaling to the world that the manner in which he was going to be compensated was going to be fair. "The final eight norms include credos like "we celebrate differences" and "we value ideas over hierarchy." Pete Buttigieg, who joined a protest outside Ubers headquarters in 2019, now leads the Department of Transportation. Mr. Khosrowshahi, who replaced Travis Kalanick in 2017, is widely perceived as a mop-up man.CreditAnnie Tritt for The New York Times. Dara Khosrowshahi was born in Tehran in May 28, 1969 and is an Iranian-American businessman and the CEO of Expedia, Inc. Khosrowshahi received a B.S. ", So even as Kalanick's misdeeds keep casting a shadow over the company, Khosrowshahi is still doing what he did when he walked in the door -- focusing on cleaning up Uber's mess. There have been several news stories alleging that Uber's technology lags behind competitors'. He took over as the CEO of Uber in 2017; this acquisition made headlines around the world as Uber had offered a whopping 200 million USD to bring him in. [2], Khosrowshahi was born in 1969 in Iran into a wealthy family and grew up in a mansion on the family compound. I love Dungeons & Dragons, but I dont know that character. FASTER! It was the first known fatality caused by a vehicle in full autonomous mode. After much debate and public intrigue, ride-sharing company Uber has selected Dara Khosrowshahi the current chief executive officer of travel website Expedia as the company's next CEO. "And unlike Kalanick, Khosrowshahi disclosed that hackers had grabbed data from 57 million drivers and riders in October 2016, and that Uber paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the information. This was his life., Andrew Macdonald, the senior vice president of mobility for Uber, who has worked for both bosses, praised Mr. Khosrowshahi for changing our culture values to do the right thing., Are we as combative as we were seven, eight years ago? Mr. Khosrowshahi has a game room, where he plays board games and card games with his sons, and he installed a funicular that goes down to the rocky beach on the Puget Sound, which is usually too cold for swimming. In his first two weeks, he held a roundtable discussion with drivers to hear their complaints (they want a higher cut of earnings) and shadowed Uber's customer support representatives to listen to what passengers were saying. Period. The transformational leadership style centers on motivating and empowering employees to drive change throughout the organization. A seasoned executive with a background in both engineering and finance, Dara oversaw a number of acquisitions that bolstered Expedias offerings and aggressively invested in mobile, which now accounts for more than half of Expedias traffic. I wanted to get married. I think thatd be really cool., He continued: Well keep working on go-and-get. Things are fine. Morgan Stanley leadership is dedicated to conducting first-class business in a first-class way. Is the era of mercurial jerk geniuses coming back? Its a deep culture, and there is an innate love that Iranians have for American culture and Americans. The situation looks bleak for new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over for founder Jeff Kalanick after the founder was ousted over frustrations that the Uber work environment turned toxic. Who wanted to get in a car with a stranger, even if there were anywhere to go? "He has approached things conservatively," said Schiffer, the brand management expert. The fact that he asked for complete engagement with his new team at Uber shows his willingness to take Uber to the next level. He took over as the CEO of Uber in 2017; this acquisition made headlines around the world as Uber had offered a whopping 200 million USD to bring him in. "We were all so hopeful for what he could bring, but there were definitely a lot of unknowns. My dad carries with him a bit of feminine energy that he learned from his mother, said his daughter, Chloe, 20, a student at Brown University, her fathers alma mater. The two dont go well together. But first, he asked every Uber employee for ideas. I ask about their impromptu wedding in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. He was then the CFO of IAC, the company that acquired USA Networks. Just know that if you pour water on him, he will melt. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world's largest online travel companies. Travel isnt going to end. Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, compares the Uber chief to Sheryl Sandberg, the pretty face that obscures the damage their firms are doing to society. They also include one that's come to typify Khosrowshahi's leadership: "We do the right thing. I said Lets get married on 12-12-12. Its a lucky day. Uber plans on letting people pay for their rides with Bitcoin. He prefers giving his team credit to swanning. I was nervous at first, he said, adding that some of it was fun and some of it was rough. He had to lay off 25 percent of his work force. Mr. Khosrowshahi, who replaced Travis Kalanick in 2017, is widely perceived as a mop-up man. This made him the highest-paid executive at that time. With Khosrowshahi in charge of Expedia, Inc., the company has grown massively. An outspoken critic of the president of the United States, Dara has opposed the immigration ban implemented by the president. "They've been in damage control mode in a professional way That will get you out of what was an epic-scale mess. Dara Khosrowshahi seems up to the task, Uber CEO wants employees to 'do the right thing. It also evokes transparency. Khosrowshahi was given the role of senior vice president and later on was made the president for strategic planning of USA Networks. While Uber is different from what it was a year ago, it's still faces obstacles. Uber andKhosrowshahi possess a unique opportunity to steal a page from Canada's photogenic prime minister. He jokes that he and his wife have found a solution for peace in the Middle East. [3] They were planning to come back to Iran if the revolution failed, but when that didn't happen, they immigrated to the United States, eventually moving in with one of his uncles in Tarrytown, New York. : I think the biggest challenge for us at this point is to keep the innovation and keep the speed up. [8] His cousin Amir co-founded Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2016 for $408million. "Khosrowshahi made nice with London lawmakers after the city revoked Uber's license to operate. I still remember going to our board of directors and I said, I need a couple of hundred million dollars and I dont know what the return is but I think its a good thing to do. That was not a fun meeting.