Uber may ask CEO Travis Kalanick to step down

Uber’s Board of Directors has adopted a series of recommendations about the company’s corporate culture from former Attorney General Eric Holder, but it was silent late Sunday on whether it would approve a leave of absence for the ride service’s embattled CEO.

An investigation into the ride-hailing technology business was launched previous year, following employee allegations of sexual harassment and a “bro culture” at the company.

After meeting for more than six hours, the board said it voted for Holder’s recommendations unanimously but wouldn’t make them public until Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the company announced it had fired 20 employees as part of an investigation into sexual harassment and other misconduct at the company.

According to a source that spoke to Reuters, Uber Technologies Inc’s board was meeting on Sunday (Monday AEST) to discuss Mr Kalanick temporarily stepping away from the firm. The board is also expected to discuss sweeping changes to the company’s management structure in response to an internal sexual harassment probe, the news agency reported, citing an unidentified source familiar with the situation.

Ride-hailing leader Uber is being put through the wringer in the USA with scandals rocking the company one after another.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, whose reputation has taken a serious hit amid allegations he oversaw a rampant culture of sexual harassment, might be taking a little vacation. Whenever a company board decides to suspend or permanently remove an executive, it has to be detailed out, Rajan Nair, a Supreme Court advocate said. Uber executive Eric Alexander was sacked on 7 June for mishandling the medical report of a woman who was raped by an Uber employee in India in 2014.

Later memos, including one sent by then head of policy and communications Rachel Whetstone before a trip to Las Vegas, struck a more serious note, the tech blog reported.

In order to take corrective measures to fix the system, Uber also recently hired Francis Frei from Harvard Business School as SVP of Leadership and Strategy to offer leadership support to CEO Travis Kalanick.

The role of chief financial officer remains open, and the company is actively searching for an operating chief to provide leadership help to Mr Kalanick. One recommendation in Holder’s report was that Michael, senior vice president of business and a confidant of Kalanick, be asked to leave the company, the three people said.

But Mr Kalanick, 40, said earlier this year that he needed to “fundamentally change and grow up”.

It said that while the company was publicly apologetic, “some top executives apparently had trouble believing that the incident was entirely true”, including Alexander, who was already in India at that time and investigated the claims.