Uber, Travis Kalanick, and the Holder Investigation: Simplified

The rideshare world has been buzzing about Uber and the recent scandals the company has faced over the past six months. The most recent news is that chief executive officer Travis Kalanick is taking a leave of absence from the company, and being temporarily replaced by a committee of people.

Here is everything you need to know about how Uber got to where it is today, and what we expect to see happen for the company in the future!

• Eric Holder, the attorney general in the Obama administration, investigated Uber’s workplace issues including several sexual harassment claims made by Uber employees, as well as the overall management issues at the company. Things were not looking great for Uber.

• A law firm, Perkins Coie, performed a parallel investigation into the sexual harassment, bullying and bias, which led to the termination of 20 employees.

• The Holder Investigation revealed a set of recommendations for the company in order to improve their corporate culture and rebuild their reputation. Some of those recommendations included rewriting the company’s core values, reducing alcohol use at work-related events, and prohibiting intimate relationships between employees and bosses.

• Uber’s board elected to approve all of the recommendations, without releasing information of what would happen to CEO Travis Kalanick.

• As a result of the Holder Investigation, top executives including Kalanick and Emil Michael, Uber’s chief business officer, were placed under questioning regarding how the “damaged” human resource organization came to be initially. Upon receiving recommendations from the Holder Investigation, Emil Michael resigned.

• Over the past six months, Uber has gradually been losing more and more executives. The recent scandals and allegations led to the loss of 10 top executives, including Uber’s President, head of finance, head of communications, and more.

• Kalanick took ultimate responsibility for the direction of the company so far, including all of the scandals. He admitted his leadership style needed work, and in order to fix Uber, he would need time off to work on himself.

• Chief Executive Officer, Travis Kalanick, told staff he would take a leave of absence. He did not provide a return date. When (or if) Kalanick returns, an independent chair will be hired to take over some of his duties and power.

• A committee of top executives may be asked to temporarily run Uber during Kalanik’s absence: including Rachel Holt (regional general manager of U.S. and Canada), Andrew Macdonald (GM of Asia Pacific and Latin America), Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty (head of operations for EMEA), Daniel Graf (head of product), and Liane Hornsey (head of HR).

• Because of Uber's dominance in the rideshare market, we think they will be ok. As long as proper time and resources are put into the company to foster a better work environment and encourage better brand reputation, the company should remain one of the top players. However, if they don't take the time to rebuild and restructure, their market share could easily be taken by the many other rideshare companies out there.

Felicia is a Ride Guru at RideGuru. She recently graduated from Bentley University with a B.S. in Marketing and minor in Computer Information Systems. She is an avid rideshare user who enjoys both domestic and international travel.