in Bioelectrical Engineering from Brown University in 1991. . Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was chosen as a person to lead Uber effective from August 30, 2017. Your account is fully activated, you now have access to all content. [16] He was initially viewed as a "dark horse" candidate in case the initial frontrunners, General Electric's Jeff Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Meg Whitman, fell through. It was acquired by IAC in 2003. The only asset we have is people. The company has grounded all of its driverless cars -- at least for now.And Khosrowshahi hasn't been perfect. Welcome back! According to data provided by Earnest, Uber drivers earn on average $364 per month. Chloe said that the man known as a Dad in Silicon Valley takes the role just as seriously at home. He had to lay off 25 percent of his work force. The Iranian culture is more ancient than the Islamic religion. He spoke out in favor of marriage equality. He cares a lot about his customers and makes sure to be connected with them on social media websites and other medians. Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he has managed the companys business in more than 70 countries around the world since 2017. But its just not what I want to be spending my time on.. He often wears a t-shirt that reads, "We are all dreamers.". We got out of some businesses. Dara Khosrowshahi was CEO of Expedia for 12 years and has proved himself as an effective business leader. 8 major US companies with Iranian-American founders or CEOs 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. [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. (The company has an arrangement with Arizona State University online to cover tuition for drivers. [10][11], In 1991, Khosrowshahi joined Allen & Company, an investment bank, as an analyst. Another leadership style I believe Khosrowshahi possesses is the social style. His family fled just before the country's revolution nine years later and eventually settled in Tarrytown, New York. Morgan Stanley leadership is dedicated to conducting first-class business in a first-class way. We went to Las Vegas to get married. He said that about a year ago, he decided to focus not only on drivers independence but also on good pay. But honestly, you know getting to 20,000 employees, getting to 30,000 employees and making sure that this is still a wonderful place to work where the individual can make a difference, where the individual can be the best person that they can be, thats a real challenge and it will continue to be a real challenge for us., On navigating crisis: We certainly had a big loss in 2008 but we leaned forward through that period. Its a big cake and I want it to be really tasty.. He has brought up the possibility of merging Waymos tech with Googles services. I know this makes me really uncool, but I have not gone into TikTok yet. 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. You know its very tempting as a manager when things are great to say, hey youre doing amazingly well. Dara Khosrowshahi lives in Capitol Hill with his wife, Sydney, and 3-year-old twin sons Hayes Epic and Hugo Gubrit Khosrowshahi. When a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research group reported that an analysis of Uber and Lyft drivers' earnings showed they make on average $3.37 per hour, the chief executive took to Twitter saying MIT stood for "Mathematically Incompetent Theories (at least as it pertains to ride-sharing).". The Giants game was starting, and traffic was nuts. Uber counters that it's still growing and its revenue is rising. "Imagine taking over this company and all of the issues you have to deal with -- Softbank, lawsuits, this that and the other, and this was his priority," Bryndza says. But at the same time, everything that Ive seen is that the U.S. is a genuine force for good in the world., Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline. [8][4], In 1987, he graduated from the Hackley School, a private university-preparatory school in Tarrytown. His 16-year-old son jumped in with an assist. Its a bigger market., It hit him, he said, that all the businesses he had been shedding scooters, electric bikes, autonomous cars, flying cars were a distraction to the mission. He replaced Kalanick's once-inviolable 14 values, which contained such items as "super pumped" and "always be hustlin'," with eight values focusing on "customer obsession". [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. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world's largest online travel companies. We do the right . Mr. Diller said his protg has had a miserable year or two, slammed by Covid, but that Dara is a great executive. Khosrowshahi expresses this mission in many of his interviews and it shines through in many descriptions of himself and the company on the Internet. An exceptional student, he was blessed with razor sharp focus and concentration. [4] In 1998, he left Allen & Company to work for one of his former clients at the bank, Barry Diller, first at Diller's USA Networks, where he held the positions of senior vice president for strategic planning and then president, and later as chief financial officer of IAC, another company controlled by Diller. The teenager said he had found a random post on the internet about a conspiracy theory contending that his father, Queen Elizabeth, George W. Bush and Bob Hope are all lizard people. Some analysts note that Ubers ride-sharing business seems to have an existential problem; wouldnt its original business model only work if it used billions to subsidize the cost of rides until the transition to self-driving cars? But the company definitely had blind spots as a result.. The Smartest Stuff:Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you -- and the world around you -- smarter. Dara Khosrowshahi Chief Executive Officer , Uber. Once, his mother, Lili, had shopped in Paris at Dior, Saint Laurent and Celine. "Khosrowshahi is more vocal than most tech CEOs on social issues, often citing his immigrant roots. As companies get bigger, they tend to slow down. Dara Khosrowshahi - Education LANGLEY, Wash. I was just cutting into a juicy piece of steak that the chief executive of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, had grilled and plopped onto my plate, when one of his 8-year-old twin boys asked me: Who was your worst interview and who was your best?. Dara Khosrowshahi is an Iranian-American businessman who is currently serving as the CEO of Uber. The Khosrowshahi family founded the Alborz Investment Company, which deals with food, trading, distribution and multiple services. Employees were expected to personify these values, which called for things like toe-stepping, principled confrontation and "always be hustlin'. The final leadership action Khosrowshahi ought to take is to denounce whatever pay package the Uber board of directors have put together to lure him away from Expedia. He came in listening. The Google head honcho is renowned for hisdecision-making skills and business acumen. What are the ethical boundaries of disruption? [20], Khosrowshahi is on the list of "Prominent Iranian-Americans" published by the U.S. From the start, Khosrowshahi wanted to hear what people at Uber had to say. When Khosrowshahi was 13, his father returned to Iran to take care of his father and was detained by the government for six years, according to Wired. thing and date a flock of supermodels and then, when he wanted to settle down, come back. She has his name tattooed in Farsi on her wrist, and he has her name tattooed in Hebrew on the back of his neck. Get the latest insights directly to your inbox! Travis Kalanick. We work with him at Uber Eats and thats fine, Mr. Khosrowshahi said. [13], In 2016, he was one of the highest paid CEOs in the United States. Dont worry about your job. And so we constantly go against and when things are good we actually push down. While it may not be possible to achieve it on day one of his tenure,Khosrowshahi can announce to the world that in due time, Uber's leadership team will be equally balanced by men and women. He later became chief financial officer at Diller's IAC, the former parent company of Expedia. We are customer-obsessed. Khosrowshahi was crucial to those talks, Ting says, and sought to treat Waymo more like a friend than a foe. Lili taught Dara to stay humble. Dara Khosrowshahi knew he was going to have to clean up a spectacular mess when he became CEO of Uber last August. The two dont go well together. Barry owned USA Networks. "You should never stop working to improve your culture, but I'm really happy to see how our new norms have slowly but surely spread positive change across the company," Khosrowshahi said in his email to me. But, as at many companies, Uber's culture reflected the personality of the person at the top: overly aggressive and willing to do anything to win. Our system is called capitalism. After he got his office badge, he tweeted out this photo and said, "I checked it and it works!". You decided to leave Expedia once Barry Diller made Joey Levin the chief executive of IAC. Im not necessarily defending him, but I understand how it would be tough for him. He actively promotes Ubervisiting different continents and setting up an intellectual property lawsuit against Waymo, Googles self-driving unit. Dara Khosrowshahi is one such individual whose journey to fame and prosperity was imbued with challenges. [9] In 1991, he graduated with a B.S. Does the incredible shrinking kingdom of Uber still dream big? [19], Khosrowshahi's main task was to clean up the image of a company that had become one of the most despised in the country, in part due to revelations about Uber's corporate culture. He cares a lot about his customers and makes sure to be connected with them on social media websites and other medians. I think Uber is icing on the cake. And now the question is, what does the responsibility look like? It required lots of people to have lots of meetings before they did anything. Taking on one of the worst cleanup jobs in the history of American capitalism, at one of the most loathed companies, Mr. Khosrowshahi was like a dad who had to mop up after the frat party, put all the Solo cups away and get the vomit off the marble floor. at the 60th to 75th percentile, because no one ever wants an average C.E.O., God help us.. 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. Can Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Lead the Company Through Crisis? The transformational leadership style centers on motivating and empowering employees to drive change throughout the organization. "And insiders and outsiders say that Khosrowshahi has shown just how different his leadership style is from Kalanick's no-apologies-necessary mantra. (Mr. Kalanick has a new start-up, CloudKitchens, which rents commercial space and turns it into shared kitchens for food delivery businesses.) We told investors, were going to hurt our margins in the second quarter doing so. He predicted that by September, prices will return to nearly the good old days, adjusted for inflation. With Khosrowshahi in charge of Expedia, Inc., the company has grown massively. "He didn't come in guns blazing," says Jessica Bryndza, Uber's global director of people experiences and employer brand. Honestly, I didnt spend a lot of time figuring it out. Under his leadership, Expedia extended its network to more than 60 countries. It requires a very strong core culture and our core culture is one about being different its about valuing the employee and then trusting them to do the right thing for the company and so far its worked for us. "If they are eyeing an IPO, they're going to have to show not only a path to profitability but to sustained profitability," says Harteveldt. Were a lot of brands that came together through mergers and acquisitions and integration and M&A and innovation are not friends. He had just gotten divorced, she said. After four days, Uber and Waymo settled. He is also a member of the board of directors of BET.com and Hotels.com,[1] and previously served on the board of The New York Times Company. Granted many of them are supplementing their income through Uber, the company still has a ways to go to improve relations. Dara Khosrowshahi - CEO - Uber | LinkedIn Disruption, once the mantra of Silicon Valley, has now become a dirty word. Things are fine. Doesnt Uber either have to charge a lot more for the rides or find some way to pay the drivers even less? National Transportation Safety Board investigators in Tempe, Arizona, examine Uber's self-driving car that hit and killed a pedestrian while it was in full autonomous mode. [3][5] His family founded the Alborz Investment Company, a diversified conglomerate involved in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, distribution, packaging, trading, and services. [14] During his tenure as CEO of Expedia, "the gross value of its hotel and other travel bookings more than quadrupled and its pre-tax earnings more than doubled. Like many a cougar, you enjoy William Whites TikTok videos, in which the 21-year-old sings 80s songs. What did he learn from the fallout after he downplayed the Khashoggi execution by Saudi leaders, who are major shareholders in Uber, as a serious mistake? Knowing the. [7] His father was not allowed to leave Iran for 6 years and therefore Khosrowshahi spent his teenage years without seeing his father. I think if you define fairness by how you think society should value people, then I think C.E.O.s are paid too much. "He doesn't come across as having everything figured out," Bryndza says, adding that one of the things Khosrowshahi hammers on the most is building trust. Anastasiia Sapon for The New York Times Second, and more. StartupTalky is top startup media platform for latest startup news, ideas, industry research and reports, inspiring startup stories. The Saudi government is an investor in Uber and has representation on its board of directors. I think thatd be really cool., He continued: Well keep working on go-and-get. 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. That has allowed me to be comfortable with taking risks and taking decisions without worrying about things too much. Under his leadership, Expedia has become the largest travel agency in the United States. [8] His cousin Amir co-founded Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2016 for $408million. Its a universal law. A lot of the things Dara is best known for are the deals that he oversaw," Harteveldt says, mentioning his acquisitions of other travel sites when he was Expedia's CEO. When people wonder, Well, are capital owners advantaged over labor? it aint called laborism., But he mused that sometimes the system works too well: I think capitalism has its claws in our democratic societies in ways that has allowed it to overly optimize for its benefit.. I ask about their impromptu wedding in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. [3] On December 12, 2012, Khosrowshahi married Sydney Shapiro, a former preschool teacher and actress. But it doesn't mean he's meek. New Uber CEO meets staff as emotional Travis Kalanick gets standing Ms. Shapiro, 43, dressed in a black linen top and pants and absently braiding and unbraiding her long blond hair, said of her mother: She was worried because I graduated college and then I wanted to go work on a farm in Costa Rica and then I went to Ozzfest as a photographers assistant and she was like, You need to settle down. I couldnt have imagined having anything in common with a C.E.O. He hired the company's first chief diversity and inclusion officer, Bo Young Lee, and its first chief operating officer, Barney Harford, who's the former CEO of Orbitz. Uber's C.E.O. Pick, Dara Khosrowshahi, Steps Into Brighter Spotlight Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick exits federal court after taking the stand during the Waymo v. Uber trial. And then, little by little, you saw that over and over and over again. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world's largest online travel companies. [23][24], Khosrowshahi has two children from a first marriage; a son, Alex and a daughter, Chloe. CEO, Author, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Strategist, Poet, Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. If feedback is to be believed and there is no reason in which not to there is an opportunity to improve the culture at Uber. They also include one that's come to typify Khosrowshahi's leadership: "We do the right thing. [4], In 2001, IAC purchased Expedia, and in August 2005, Khosrowshahi became CEO of Expedia. And I think the way that you manage it is is you put the right people in the right places and then you trust them to do the right stuff. When Khosrowshahi was named Uber's CEO, he was virtually unknown. In 2017, he left Expedia, where he had quintupled revenue in a dozen years, to take over Uber from Travis Kalanick, whose name became synonymous with overly aggressive business moves and the gnarly bro excesses of Silicon Valley. But if he is to take over from the company's embattled and former CEO, Travis Kalanick, there are five key leadership actions he might want to consider. The first Indian cab aggregator company, Ola has madeavailing cab serv, Uber Success Story - Know the History of Uber | Founders | Acquisitions, Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. My dads advice was, If a company thats a verb offers you a job, say yes, he recalled. [4] The couple has twin sons, Hayes Epic and Hugo Gubrit. Uber CEO almost said no to the jobSpotify CEO convinced him to take it 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. egomaniac but that shed get a free dinner, Chloe, one of two children from Mr. Khosrowshahis first marriage, told me later. Uber's U-turn: How the new CEO is cleaning house after scandals - CNET But he has a chance to potentially do something unique. HP CEO Meg Whitman and former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt were shortlisted as potential leaders of the new Uber leadership. And one of the things that that Barry Diller, who is our chairman, always says is you want to have a company that can have a balance sheet, kind of this lock, stock, and barrel strong balance sheet that allows you to lean forward during periods of uncertainty because when everyone else is pulling back, if you lean forward, thats when you gain share. "I'd never heard of Dara before," Ting says. "Travis had almost a Rambo-style approach to leadership, which made Uber giant," said Eric Schiffer, a brand management expert and CEO of Reputation Management Consultants. The bottom line? The two men have a long professional history, having worked together at Expedia when Mr Khosrowshahi was chief executive of the travel company. Were going to grow. With his wife, Sydney Shapiro, and Barry Diller in Sun Valley. But as we rebuilt the architecture, we architected the company so that Hotels.com and Expedia and Trivago and HomeAway, etc., are run quite independently.