Uber's New CEO Pick Is Out Of Left Field

Jeffrey Immelt, the ex-CEO of General Electric Company GE, was widely expected to accept the vacant CEO spot at Uber. But in a surprise move, the ride-hailing company named Dara Khosrowshahi its new leader.

Khosrowshahi, the current CEO of Expedia Inc EXPE, was considered to be a dark horse candidate since his name hasn't been named publicly as a potential CEO, Bloomberg reported.

Uber's board held a meeting over the weekend for final interview rounds with various executives, which also included Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE's CEO and president, Meg Whitman, who denied being interested in the job. Also, Immelt's public defense of his decision to remain on President Donald Trump's manufacturing council before it was officially disbanded may have been seen by Uber as troublesome, Bloomberg suggested.

The Iran-born American brings to Uber a vast array of experience, which includes a stint as an investment banker and various acquisitions he oversaw in the online travel space.

"He's been able to leverage technology in a thoughtful way," Woody Marshall, an investor in the online travel industry told Bloomberg. "He's the real deal. He's not bigger than life in terms of his public appearance or public personality. He's bigger than life in terms of culture and values."

Perhaps more important, Khosrowshahi has experience in battling with Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL's Google unit — a foe Uber also has to contend with in the self-driving space.

Related Links:

Some Of Uber's Shareholders Aren't Confident Immelt Could Handle Kalanick's Wild Side

SoftBank Is Interested In Investing In Uber Or Lyft

________

Image Credit: By George Grinsted from San Francisco, USA (https://www.flickr.com/photos/imgeorge/8188841859/) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons