I can completely imagine that hurting, because hed built the company. Innovate How Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Is the Exact Opposite of Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Startup founders and corporate CEOs have completely different leadership styles. The Smartest Stuff:Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you -- and the world around you -- smarter. 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. Drawing of a court document from the Waymo v. Uber trial showing former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's reported wish list for what he wanted to get from Waymo's self-driving car program -- including all of Waymo's data, source code and a pound of flesh. Khosrowshahi is one of the most successful CEOs in the world, who Liked by Dara Khosrowshahi Join now to see. It demonstrates humility. ', On diversity and global ambitions:Its really important for us to be global in nature and to be open to diverse kinds of backgrounds and cultures. Hes not growing a Neanderthal beard, living off salt juice or summering in outer space, but rather bucolic Whidbey Island, a brief ferry ride from Seattle. The system, the way its designed with these compensation consultants, creates a significantly inflationary environment. Mr. Diller said his protg has had a miserable year or two, slammed by Covid, but that Dara is a great executive. by Monica Nickelsburg on August 30, 2017 at 10:42 amAugust 30, 2017 at 10:58 am. He tries his best to make sure that Expedia, Inc. will provide the people of the world with the best possible experience. I think, just like Uber, some of them grew up too fast and some of them didnt take responsibility for their power and I think now theyre being called to reckon, and I think itll ultimately result in a better, more balanced society going forward, he said. Under his leadership, Expedia has extended its global presence to more than 60 countries worldwide through the Expedia, Hotels.com . And I think sometimes leaders get this wrong which is when things are bad and you know one of your teams is having a tough time. Is the era of mercurial jerk geniuses coming back? They dont have to come to me to ask for permission to do something. His dad had to return to Iran to look after the crumbling family venture, and was stranded in the war-torn country for six years. Dara Khosrowshahi net worth is $250 million as of 2021 with a base salary is $45million, Dara is one of the highest-paid CEOs in the world. Absolutely true. 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. Will Dara fight and push and take issues all the way for what he believes in? Mr. Khosrowshahi, who replaced Travis Kalanick in 2017, is widely perceived as a mop-up man. As companies get bigger, they tend to slow down. 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. They are part-time contractors. [3] Right now, I dream about pushing a button and getting a piano delivered to your home in an hour and a half, Mr. Khosrowshahi said. Were going to be over $50 billion now. StartupTalky is top startup media platform for latest startup news, ideas, industry research and reports, inspiring startup stories. He had to lay off 25 percent of his work force. He criticized President Donald Trump's travel ban restricting immigration from several majority Muslim countries. We want to grow there but it also allows us to attract a really diverse employee populace and that is an incredibly important asset for us because we dont own hotels. It also evokes transparency. "Uber is fortunate to have him at the helm. Employees were expected to personify these values, which called for things like toe-stepping, principled confrontation and "always be hustlin'. Dara Khosrowshahi - Education You decided to leave Expedia once Barry Diller made Joey Levin the chief executive of IAC. Expedia is a travel technology company that owns a website on travel fare aggregation. [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. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the worlds largest online travel companies. I also believe that he is the type of leader to want all possible knowledge, so as to become even more powerful. 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. Drivers outside Ubers headquarters urging voters to rejectProposition 22. Theyre reptilian aliens that can shape-shift and control the world, he explained. Now Khosrowshahi will apply his leadership style and lessons learned to his next job as the new CEO of Uber, steering the company through upheaval and growth. Anywhere you want to go, anything you want to get, however you want to get it, well be there for you.. "Khosrowshahi, recruited from travel site Expedia, started his turnaround at Uber by talking to people. Dara Khosrowshahi, Dad of Silicon Valley The Uber CEO dreams of "pushing a button and getting a piano delivered to your home in an hour and a half." Uh let's start with dinner? [17]:321324, He forfeited his un-vested stock options of Expedia, then worth $184million, but Uber reportedly paid him over $200million to take the CEO position. Once, his mother, Lili, had shopped in Paris at Dior, Saint Laurent and Celine. Rainy days: An Uber driver in Times Square. He prefers giving his team credit to swanning. 2023 CNET, a Red Ventures company. Dara Khosrowshahi knew he was going to have to clean up a spectacular mess when he became CEO of Uber last August. Under his leadership, Expedia extended its network to more than 60 countries. I believe that the opposite style of Khosrowshahi's leadership would be the resource leader. IfKhosrowshahi wants to win back the hearts and minds of disaffected Uber employees at its headquarters, disengaged drivers across the planet, as well as any disconcerted customers, he ought to come clean and apologize for its various mistakes. He said he didnt have enough time to be depressed or to feel sorry. As he was frantically trying to figure out if the company already losing billions could survive losing, in some places, 85 percent of its rides business, he discovered a glimmer moving fast: Uber Eats, an arm of the business he had been pouring money into for the previous two years, despite many investors being unhappy about it. You've successfully subscribed to StartupTalky. We do the right . [6], In 1978, just before the Iranian Revolution, his family was targeted for its wealth and his mother decided to leave everything behind and flee the country. Please try again. My hope is, it doesnt destroy what we built. Raistlin Majere is your favorite Dungeons & Dragons character. Setting this type of tone on day one sends a remarkable signal. Disruption, once the mantra of Silicon Valley, has now become a dirty word. Do the captains of the cloud and industry making obscene gobs of dough deserve it? "You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later. Finding ways to improve both the relations with Uber drivers as well as their compensation levels (think livable wage) can only positively affect the bottom line for Uber. Dara Khosrowshahi: Changing the Company Culture at Uber By: Joseph C. Santora Publisher: SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals Publication year: 2020 Online pub date: January 15, 2020 Discipline: Organizational Culture, Change Leadership, Leadership Styles Contains: Teaching Notes DOI: https://dx. Pick, Dara Khosrowshahi, Steps into Brighter Spotlight", "Uber's CEO Comes From What May Be the World's Most Techie Family", "Dara Khosrowshahi, Dad of Silicon Valley", "The amazing life of Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi from refugee to tech superstar", "Spinoff of Expedia Comes at Tough Time for Its Sector", "Dara Khosrowshahi: Executive Profile & Biography", "Here's One CEO Who Probably Justified His $94 Million Payday", "New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: What you need to know", "Uber picks Dara Khosrowshahi as its new boss", "6 things to know about Uber's CEO pick Dara Khosrowshahi", "Uber officially announces Dara Khosrowshahi will be its new CEO", "Uber's New CEO May Get at Least $200 Million to Exit Expedia", "Read Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's Letter to Employees on IPO Day", "Uber CEO calls slaying of Jamal Khashoggi 'a mistake' and compares it to a self-driving car crash", "Uber CEO calls Jamal Khashoggi murder 'serious mistake', Uber gave CEO Dara Khosrowshahi $45 million in total pay last year, but it paid its COO even more, Legality of ridesharing companies by jurisdiction, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dara_Khosrowshahi&oldid=1137916332, Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States, Brown University School of Engineering alumni, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Articles containing Persian-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Kathleen Grant (?2009, divorced), Sydney Shapiro (m. 2012present), This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 01:56. Im not necessarily defending him, but I understand how it would be tough for him. And thats certainly the experience that we had in 2008/2009., On leadership:One of the early lessons that I learned in leadership is that its the leaders job to always go against the flow. 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. "None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it," he added. Philip Pacheco | Afp | Getty Images. in electrical and electronics engineering from Brown University, where he was a member of the social fraternity Sigma Chi. In the previous six months, the ride-hailing service -- one of the world's most valuable startups -- had careened out of control, providing fodder for headline after headline. He has an opportunity to take a stand. And he held meetings that Kalanick never did during regulatory battles with cities around the world. CEO, Author, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Strategist, Poet, Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Create a best place to work culture. 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. He visits Twitter twice a day, and Instagram at night to heart his wifes posts. "Khosrowshahi was born in Iran in 1969. More than arguably is necessary. 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. "Uber choose Dara Khosrowshahi as its CEO", "BRIEF-New York Times says Dara Khosrowshahi to resign from co board in light of his new role as Uber CEO", "Evolution of a dealmaker: Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is PSBJ's Executive of the Year", "Expedia Chief Dara Khosrowshahi Will Be Uber's Next CEO. Dara Khosrowshahi isnt your typical tech bro. [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. Jessica Bryndza, Uber's global director of people experiences and employer brand. He later became chief financial officer at Diller's IAC, the former parent company of Expedia. Here . Before the disruption caused by the Iranian Revolution, Dara Khosrowshahi was all set to join his family business. There have been several news stories alleging that Uber's technology lags behind competitors'. In my own research and professional life as a Chief Learning Officer and Chief Envisioner, I too know that culture can be your competitive advantage. Period', Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Magnifying glass indicating a search icon. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his first political cabinet in late 2015 it was gender-balanced. Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he has managed the company's business in more than 70 countries around the world since 2017. "Because of that, Uber has become a more stable work environment, says Bryndza, with better employee retention and morale. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's new CEO, will have to work under the watchful eye of his predecessor, founder Travis Kalanick. He's dramatically reshaped Uber's famously "toxic" corporate culture, smoothed relations inside Uber's board and sealed a $9.3 billion investment deal led by Japanese internet giant Softbank. He had just gotten divorced, she said. "A lot of us probably thought about leaving at some point," says Wayne Ting, who's worked at Uber for four years and is now Khosrowshahi's chief of staff. Eats on a volume basis is going to be bigger than Rides chiefly because with Eats, were going to go to grocery and were going to the pharmacy and were going to every single local commerce category. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg, The Memo: Plant-Based Laptops, BMWs Hybrid SUV & The Worlds Best Beach, 15 Ways To Build An Organizational Culture That Promotes True Gender Equality, 15 Ways To Get Comfortable With Not Always Having The Answer As A Leader, Pitching Your Startup In A Remote-First World, How Digital Marketing Can Be A Game Changer For Healthcare Providers, How Loyalty Programs Can Help Brands During A Recession, How To Surround Yourself With The Right People And Find Business Profitability. Another cousin, Golnar, founded Reservoir Media in 2007 as a music publishing company. Hes a passionate advocate for refugees in crisis around the world, having himself left Iran during the Iranian Revolution at the age of 9. His 16-year-old son jumped in with an assist. Some insiders praise his calm management style and steady hand, but others worry he lacks. Uber counters that it's still growing and its revenue is rising. [18] He also serves on Uber's board of directors. Ill always have this, he said. When Expedia spun off from IAC in 2005, Diller named Khosrowshahi as CEO.Khosrowshahi took Expedia from a midsize business to a family of brands. (Mr. Kalanick has a new start-up, CloudKitchens, which rents commercial space and turns it into shared kitchens for food delivery businesses.) Notwithstanding the public apology,Khosrowshahi can commit to doing what he did at Expedia. 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. Dara Khosrowshahi Chief Executive Officer. He was then the CFO of IAC, the company that acquired USA Networks. [14][4] In 2016, he donated to the Hillary Victory Fund, Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray, and the Democratic National Committee. New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has a big job at hand: Rehabilitate the ride-hailing company's battered image and keep ridership growing at a rate that will support its $68 billion valuation. [3][4] He is the youngest of the three children of Lili and Asghar (Gary) Khosrowshahi. But after last week's selloff of tech stocks where Uber fell 16%, Khosrowshahi's company finds itself on war footing again. 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". A regular member of the list of Prominent Iranian Americans since 2015, his qualities and hardships have put him in rarefied air. But when things are tough you know as long as you believe in your team and you believe in your strategy thats when you go against and say, you know what? "He didn't come in guns blazing," says Jessica Bryndza, Uber's global director of people experiences and employer brand. "Eight months later, he's still listening. Thereafter, Dara Khosrowshahi took over the charge of the company, and the company scaled new heights under him. I think actually some of the programs that were having now are to provide a bridge to become a coder or salesperson at Uber or to get a free education. Right after taking up the role of the C.E.O. [20], Khosrowshahi is on the list of "Prominent Iranian-Americans" published by the U.S. Overcoming the odds in life is more than a test. She has his name tattooed in Farsi on her wrist, and he has her name tattooed in Hebrew on the back of his neck. 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. We sit down with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to discuss the ever-changing state of work. [4] Ten years later, in 2015, Expedia gave him $90 million in stock options as part of a long-term employment agreement, conditioned on him staying with the company until 2020. We dont fly planes. 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. He has brought up the possibility of merging Waymos tech with Googles services. His work ethics drew the attention of companies like Uber who requested him to lead them in tough times. ), Tony West, the chief legal officer of Uber, said that Mr. Khosrowshahi is willing to take on legal risk to fix the Uber workplace. There is no team, per se. The Saudi government is an investor in Uber and has representation on its board of directors. I think that they will have less of a problem with my tax record, he said. People are still going to travel. As CEO, Khosrowshahi is leading the company into its long-awaited IPO on Friday. No, Mr. Macdonald said. Mr. Khosrowshahi, who replaced Travis Kalanick in 2017, is widely perceived as a mop-up man.CreditAnnie Tritt for The New York Times. egomaniac but that shed get a free dinner, Chloe, one of two children from Mr. Khosrowshahis first marriage, told me later. at Uber, he was quick to calm down critics triggered by the acts of former C.E.O. 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. Khosrowshahi said his priorities were to meet with the leadership team and fill the many management holes. After four days, Uber and Waymo settled. After the crash, industry insiders questioned Uber's safety standards and its rush to get autonomous vehicles onto public streets. The company has grounded all of its driverless cars -- at least for now.And Khosrowshahi hasn't been perfect. This included Kalanick, even though Khosrowshahi had made clear that under his watch, Kalanick would have no role in Uber's daily operations; as he put it in one of his slides, "there cannot be two CEOs." ", 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. I ask about their impromptu wedding in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. Sometimes the emotional takes over and I think thats destructive but I think the age of I built a platform, Im not responsible, that time is over. The two men have a long professional history, having worked together at Expedia when Mr Khosrowshahi was chief executive of the travel company. During his 12-year tenure as the public face of Expedia, DaraKhosrowshahi has been vocal about what makes for great leadership, how hes navigated the company through challenges, and his ambitions for the future. Actually Mr. Khosrowshahi, 52, is weirdly normal for Silicon Valley. The technology that needs to be built to have that hamburger show up in 30 minutes, guaranteed, is spectacular, he said. How do today's most influential C-suite . Then he got out. [4], In 2001, IAC purchased Expedia, and in August 2005, Khosrowshahi became CEO of Expedia. Uber was founded in 2009 with its headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States. "That consistent drum beat those things about transparency, about fairness, about objectivity.". It was us and about 10,000 Chinese people looking to get married because its a very, very lucky day there.. What Is Creator Economy & How Is It Driving Indias GDP? Dara Khosrowshahi - Net Worth He flew across the ocean to come to Ukraine. He was also beloved by Expedias employees and named one of the Highest Rated CEOs on Glassdoor. 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. He always emphasizes accountability and transparency. We need not go through the laundry list of problems the company has created over the past few years in this space. I nearly got killed delivering near the baseball park. [3], His second cousin, Hassan Khosrowshahi, also fled Iran due to the Iranian Revolution and is now a billionaire. Dara Khosrowshahi was CEO of Expedia for 12 years and has proved himself as an effective business leader. Initially, Expedia was a division of Microsoft but branched out in 1996. Here's What We Know About Him", "Uber's C.E.O. "For culture change to take hold at a big company, it can't come from the top down.". He frequently wears a black T-shirt with white lettering that reads, "We are all dreamers. ", Khosrowshahi is vocal about his stance on social issues, such as keeping Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the US. And then, little by little, you saw that over and over and over again. Every single comp committee wants to pay their C.E.O. Rather remarkably, 90% of Expedia employees say that their workplace is great and 95% indicate the atmosphere at the company is great. Great! Lawsuits poured in, the chief executive was forced to step aside and the company was left leaderless for two months with a dysfunctional board of directors. Several of the directors read the announcement as blackmail. Next, complete checkout for full access to StartupTalky. He actively promotes Ubervisiting different continents and setting up an intellectual property lawsuit against Waymo, Googles self-driving unit. He is known to come up with and encourage diverse strategies to pump up profitability and influence. "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. Isnt this fundamentally at odds with treating workers humanely? I think theres some unfortunate history there. Martin would concoct childrens stories set in faraway kingdoms with magical wishing flowers and golden owls that could stop time. Its a deep culture, and there is an innate love that Iranians have for American culture and Americans. Travis Kalanick left his post and cut ties with Uber in 2019. The Times beat me to the punch. Met with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. NowKhosrowshahi will apply his leadership style and lessons learned to his next jobas the new CEO of Uber, steering the company through upheaval and growth. He cares a lot about his customers and makes sure to be connected with them on social media websites and other medians. But I think investors like returns.. [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. But the company definitely had blind spots as a result.. Having served as the CEO of Expedia and as the current CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi presents a lot on the plate when it comes to experience and managing top brands. We celebrate differences. You've successfully signed in. Dara Khosrowshahi, 48, has been the chief executive of the travel site Expedia. "Khosrowshahi made nice with London lawmakers after the city revoked Uber's license to operate. That's earned him a reputation as a measured and diplomatic leader. "For all of us who stayed, we stayed because we believe Uber can be a better company and we wanted to stay and fight for a better Uber. "The final eight norms include credos like "we celebrate differences" and "we value ideas over hierarchy." His leadership has guided brands to supremacy. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Expedia and Catalyst.org and was previously on the board of the New York Times Company. Block and Khosrowshahi also discuss how companies can implement systems for privacy, trust, and safety. During his tenure at Expedia, Khosrowshahi earned a lot of money. AP Our Bain & Company team recently concluded a five-year study to. "The experience of my family losing everything when they came to the US really shaped me," Khosrowshahi said during his first all-hands meeting at Uber on August 31. Whether it's Waymo, whether it's more governance, he allowed the company to then go back to business. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's chief executive, must convince investors that the money-burning start-up is a viable long-term business. It was acquired by IAC in 2003. [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. The two dont go well together. Dara Khosrowshahi is the former CEO of Expedia who took over Uber as CEO in 2017. Check your inbox and click the link. Were going to push. When at Expedia, the board was so delighted with Daras performance that they decided to award him a 91 million USD stock grant along with 4 million USD salary in 2015. Dara Khosrowshahi Chief Executive Officer , Uber. These "employees" have become part of the over-used and quintessential definition of the so-called "gig economy."