Less than a month after Uber's disappointing public debut, chief operating officer Barney Harford and chief marketing officer Rebecca Messina have stepped down from their respective positions, according to an internal company email from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi first obtained by Bloomberg.
After finally recovering to its $45 IPO price in recent days, Uber's stock dropped around 1% on the news of the leadership shake-up. It coincided with the Friday afternoon after-hours announcement, traditionally a time reserved for negative news releases regarding public companies.
In the email, Khosrowshahi stated that "Barney and [he] have agreed that the COO role no longer makes sense," but did not elaborate on the specific reasons. Barney Harford will remain in his role until July 1. Harford had been with Uber since January 2017 after a stint as the CEO at Orbitz Worldwide. Harford and Khosrowshahi worked together at the travel booking company, with Harford leading the company's presence in Asia while Khosrowshahi served as CEO.
Messina had been with the company for nine months, according to her LinkedIn profile, after a two-year stint at Beam Suntory and a nearly 22-year career at Coca-Cola. Regarding her departure, Khosrowshahi's email said the company's marketing, communications and policy would be unified as one and led by Jill, a reference to Jill Hazelbaker, senior vice president of communications and public policy.
Further, Andrew Macdonald, current vice president of Americas and global business development, will take lead on the global rides business reporting directly to Khosrowshahi. Similar direct reporting assignments were declared for other teams, such as for Jason Droege's lead of the Uber Eats team.
Khosrowshahi concluded his email by reassuring his team that "with the IPO behind us, [he] felt this was a good moment to simplify our org and set us up for the future" and stated the shake-up would allow him more time to be hands-on in the day-to-day operations of the company.
Featured photo courtesy of Uber
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