Uber’s co-founder leaves board to focus on new startup

U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies, Inc. said Tuesday that its co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is leaving the Board of Directors to focus on his own business.

Kalanick will officially resign from the company’s Board on Dec. 31, Uber said, without disclosing who will fill his vacancy.

Kalanick was forced to step down in 2017 as CEO of the company he co-founded in 2009 in the wake of a “shareholder revolt” led by some of Uber’s most prominent investors over what was called “a bad workplace culture under his watch.” However, he remained on the Board despite his resignation.

In a statement about his departure from Uber,

Kalanick described the U.S. top ride-hailing company as a part of his life over the past 10 years.

“At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits,” he said.
Uber incumbent CEO Dara Khosrowshahi praised Kalanick for his “vision and tenacity” in building Uber into a worldwide business.

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“Very few entrepreneurs have built something as profound as Travis Kalanick did with Uber,” he said. “I’m enormously grateful for Travis’ vision and tenacity while building Uber, and for his expertise as a board member.”

Local media reported that Kalanick has sold all of his shares at Uber to cut the last connection he has ever had with the American tech firm.

Kalanick is now having a role in CloudKitchens, a startup dedicating to buying up cheap properties across the United States to make them into a platform of on-demand food delivery business.

Source: Xinhua