Topic: Executives
Google Loses Another Fiber CEO, After Five Months on the Job (Jul 18, 2017)
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Twitter Hires a Permanent CFO from Intuit (Jul 11, 2017)
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Pandora Confirms CEO and Two Other Execs Stepping Down and Closes Service in ANZ (Jun 27, 2017)
The main news item linked below just confirms the reports from over the weekend which I covered yesterday, which suggested Tim Westergren would be stepping down shortly. In the end, it seems he’s stepping down both as CEO and from the board immediately, rather than sticking around, so the CFO will take his place. One thing that wasn’t reported over the weekend is that two other execs – the President and CMO – are also leaving. And lastly, former Viacom, Sling Media and News Corp exec and current media commentator Jason Hirschhorn is joining the board. One quick note: though Recode makes it sound like Hirschhorn is replacing Westergren on the board, Pandora’s press release makes clear he’s filling another recently created opening on the board (which I take to be replacing Pete Gotcher, who stepped down in May). The fact that other execs are also leaving reinforces my sense from yesterday that all this is driven by a clash with soon to be part-owners SiriusXM, but it’s still not entirely clear whether they truly jumped or were pushed. Either way, I continue to be believe we’ll see some big changes. On that note, Australian site Ad News reported that Pandora would shortly shut down its operations in Australia and New Zealand, and Billboard later got confirmation from the company that that’s the case. That would be just the kind of strategic refocusing I’d expect to see over the next few weeks and months.
via Recode
Pandora CEO Reportedly to Step Down (Jun 26, 2017)
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Waymo Hires Former Tesla Autonomous Hardware Lead to Run its Own Hardware Efforts (Jun 23, 2017)
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★ Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Finally Does the Right Thing and Resigns (Jun 21, 2017)
Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick has finally bowed to pressure from investors in the company and resigned. It doesn’t look like Uber has issued an official statement at this point, but Recode claims to have confirmed the news following a letter from a number of big investors demanding his resignation. At various points since Uber started melting down in January, I’ve both said that Travis Kalanick was the source of the company’s cultural problems and therefore that it would be very hard for the company to truly change with him still in place, and also as recently as last week said that resignations of other top executives felt hollow when Kalanick had in many places been involved in or at least aware of their wrongful actions. For many years, Kalanick’s closest allies within the company were protected by him even when acting egregiously, and that circle had tightened to just Kalanick himself in recent weeks, but did still include him, making all the changes Uber was making ring rather hollow as he continued at the helm. I think his leave of absence was intended to achieve some of the same objectives as an outright resignation without forcing him out, which would have been tough to do, but it was already clear that he was remaining involved remotely in key decisions and thus that there was no real separation. What’s notable is that, despite all the outside pressure for Kalanick to go, and board members’ repeated defenses of him, it took investors acting as a group to finally force him out. This now leaves an enormous vacuum at the top of the company – a committee of no less than 14 people has been said to be running Uber during Kalanick’s absence – at a time when it has already been looking to fill the COO role and has left several other key executives in recent months. I would guess all that will now be reset, with several new executive search processes eventually running to fill the key roles. That, in turn, is going to make it very hard for the company to move forward aggressively with the changes it has committed to in the wake of the Holder Report recommendations. But this is all for the best long term, even if it’s messy in the short term. One big question that’s outstanding is whether the legal strategy in the Waymo-Uber court case changes at all as a result of Kalanick’s departure – we’ll see now to what extent the approach pursued so far was driven by him personally and to what extent the company will act consistently or differently now that he’s out.
via Recode
Ex-Apple Engineer Chris Lattner Leaves Tesla After 5 Months (Jun 20, 2017)
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Apple Poaches Two Sony TV Execs to Lead Video Programming (Jun 16, 2017)
Apple has hired two executives who previously helped make Breaking Bad and The Crown on behalf of AMC and Netflix respectively as its new heads of video programming globally. Those two pieces of content are powerful examples of the role of original content in boosting video brands – Breaking Bad was a major plank of AMC’s push over recent years to turn itself into more than just a catalog player, and while The Crown isn’t Netflix’s most popular bit of original content, it’s very good and a sign of the kind of big-budget stuff it’s going to be making more of going forward. As such, these are fascinating hires, given that for now at least Apple is on the opposite of that process – commissioning rather than producing original video content. These hires could be a sign that change is coming, given that these two new execs have experience producing and not just commissioning video, but that’s a somewhat unusual model for original content compared with other major players like Netflix, which have still tended to farm out original content rather than lead production internally. It’s possible that they will merely become equivalents of Ted Sarandos at Netflix, using their expertise to commission and oversee outside projects, but they seem somewhat odd hires in that context. All of this, meanwhile, seems much less plausible in a continued narrow focus on video content in Apple Music, and much more as part of a broader push into video ahead of a subscription video service. Two other things worth noting: Apple put out a press release on the hires, something it does very rarely indeed, suggesting it wants to make a fuss out of this. Secondly, these two will report directly to Eddy Cue, which will set up an interesting dynamic with Jimmy Iovine, who has seemed to loom large over all of Apple’s content efforts, but especially in video, and who I’ve speculated before is a bit of a loose cannon in this area. I’m hoping these two coming on board provides some more clarity in who owns original video content at Apple.
via WSJ
Uber SVP Emil Michael Leaves Company and Board Gets a New Female Member from Nestle (Jun 12, 2017)
Any other week, I’d have made this a top post – it’s momentous – but of course we’re all waiting for the other shoe to drop on Tuesday in terms of the release of the Holder report to employees at Uber and hopefully to the rest of us too. As such, Emil Michael’s departure merely feels like the tipoff for a week of big announcements and changes. But his departure is also somewhat problematic because many of his missteps also involved or were supported by Travis Kalanick. In other words, if his past actions merited being pushed out of the door (and they certainly did) then Kalanick staying feels like a sign of a double standard. Either those actions warranted those responsible being fired, or they didn’t. However, symbolically, Michael’s departure signals the end of an era in which Kalanick’s top people pretty much got to stay no matter what they’d done, something we’ve seen signs of changing in recent weeks with several other departures, not least that of Anthony Levandowski. Also worth noting is that Uber has hired a new female board member who currently serves as EVP in South Asia at Nestle. Her appointment as an independent director appears to be in line with recommendations from the Holder Report, though it clearly can’t have been brought about that quickly and must have been in the works previously.
via Recode
Uber Fires Exec, Loses Bid to Keep Doc Private, Says Management Changes Coming (Jun 7, 2017)
Rather than treat each of yet another set of Uber news as a separate item, I’m bundling three together into a single grab-bag item here. The most notable (and damaging) is the revelation that one of Uber’s senior execs in Asia led an effort to obtain the medical records of an Uber passenger who was raped by her driver and shared the records with CEO Travis Kalanick and others. He wasn’t fired as part of the 20 terminations that resulted from the first investigation which concluded this week, but has apparently been subsequently, allegedly as a result of the digging by Recode reporters. That’s somewhat absurd given how far-reaching and aggressive the investigation was said to have been, but may reflect a slightly higher bar for executive behavior being set as a result of recent arrivals in the management ranks. Secondly, board member Arianna Huffington, who has been acting more as apologist than change agent in this whole saga, both defended Uber’s culture and said management changes were coming in an appearance on CNBC. The latter is new, though not entirely unexpected, while the former is more evidence of a somewhat mystifying attempt to downplay what are obviously damaging signs of a sick corporate culture at Uber. Lastly, Uber lost the latest round in its court case with Waymo, and will now have to turn over documents relating to Uber’s acquisition of Otto, which could provide some more evidence Waymo needs to make its overall case stick. Overall, plenty more evidence here of both the nasty culture and the difficulty of turning it around, and also that Waymo is going to get at least some of what it’s looking for out of the court case.
via Recode (Asia exec fired), CNBC (management changes coming), Bloomberg (acquisition doc to be provided to Waymo)
Bozoma Saint John Leaves Apple Music to Become Uber’s Chief Brand Officer (Jun 6, 2017)
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★ Uber Fires Anthony Levandowski for Refusal to Cooperate in Lawsuit (May 30, 2017)
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Tidal Loses Third CEO in Less Than Three Years (May 26, 2017)
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Snapchat is Struggling to Grow Partly Because Evan Spiegel Trusts Gut Over Data (May 24, 2017)
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Ford Announces New CEO, Who Formerly Headed its Mobility Initiatives (May 22, 2017)
It might seem odd at first glance that I’m covering an auto industry leadership change, but it’s news that’s very much in keeping with the “Tech Disrupts Transportation” narrative here on the site, and the nature of both the troubles that prompted the move and the move itself are reflective of that trend too. Mark Fields, who has been CEO for the last three years, is being replaced by Jim Hackett, who has been running Ford Smart Mobility. Although this New York Times piece and others this morning are focusing on the fact that FSM and therefore Hackett has owned Ford’s autonomous driving initiatives, that’s only part of its remit, and that’s worth noting. It also owns in-car connectivity, mobility itself (which is the industry term for ride sharing and other new ownership and other business models for cars), and data and analytics, among other things. In other words, with the exception of electrification, it has owned essentially all of what’s next in the automotive industry. That Fields would have put all that in a separate division is perhaps the biggest sign that he underestimated how central these changes would be to the future of the company, and it also makes sense to put the guy who’s been running all that in charge of the company at this point. Hackett will need to bring these initiatives to the forefront of what Ford does, along with electrification, where it’s moved more slowly than other car companies, if he’s to help turn Ford around. But he’s taking over at a really tough time in both the company’s history and the US automotive industry.
Uber Threatens to Fire Levandowski if He Doesn’t Comply with Court Orders (May 19, 2017)
The judge in the Uber-Waymo case has told Uber in no uncertain terms that it has to do all it can to get its employee, Anthony Levandowski, to comply with the court’s orders in terms of handing over documents and disclosing other information relevant to the case. As such, given his continued unwillingness to cooperate, Uber has officially threatened to fire him – something it certainly doesn’t want to do – and his lawyers are now fighting back. Levandowski has throughout this process invoked his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, but that in turn has made it harder for Uber to defend itself, because much of the most relevant information has been held back by Levandowski. At this point, it feels like both Uber and Levandowski are coming off badly around this whole situation, given that it seems very clear that Uber was working with Levandowski before he left Waymo, and Levandowski clearly feels he has something to hide. I very much doubt Levandowski will actually be fired, but it’s remarkable that he continues to resist these clear orders from the judge even as his job is at stake. Meanwhile, both parties – Levandowski and his employer – seem remarkably willing to throw each other under the bus, which says something both about the stakes here and the prevailing culture at the company.
via WSJ
Uber Self-Driving Exec Levandowski Removed from Autonomy Role During Lawsuit (Apr 28, 2017)
Anthony Levandowski, who has until now led Uber’s self-driving group, has been removed from his role during the lawsuit between the company and Waymo over the alleged stealing of LIDAR technology by Levandowski. He’s staying at Uber, and will continue in various other responsibilities there, but will no longer be involved in the area of technology which is at the heart of the case, which means that group will have a new lead from among the group of employees Uber poached from Carnegie Mellon some years ago. That’s interesting, because there’s been some conflict between Levandowski’s group and the CM group at Uber in the past. This week, Levandowski also failed in his bid to use the 5th amendment to protect himself and Uber during the lawsuit, which should make the case both more interesting and potentially more damaging for him. Uber has tried to distance itself from the issues at the core of the lawsuit, suggesting that the alleged actions would have been taken Levandowski operating as an individual employee rather than on behalf of the company, but that argument is getting harder to make. Removing Levandowski at least limits the perception that he’s still using what he learned at Waymo to help Uber with its own LIDAR technology, something Uber has denied all along. The lawsuit, meanwhile, is getting increasingly nasty, with Uber targeting senior Waymo executives for depositions apparently on the basis of mere spite, because they have nothing to do with the details of the litigation.
via Business Insider
Uber Exec in Charge of Pittsburgh Self-Driving Test Quits (Apr 18, 2017)
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Uber comms head Rachel Whetstone is departing – Recode (Apr 11, 2017)
Yet another executive departure from Uber, this time its head of PR. It’s impossible not to see this in the context of Uber’s overall recent troubles, but Whetstone has been there for a number of years now, and interestingly is handing over to another woman. I say interestingly because her successor will have to deal with the reaction to the internal investigation at Uber over sexual harassment, which I can’t imagine will be fun, especially if the investigation concludes that it’s a bad place for women to work. On the other hand, having a woman leading the charge on getting that PR message out could also be seen cynically as a clever strategic move.
via Recode
Veteran Apple Designer Leaving — The Information (Apr 3, 2017)
Christopher Stringer was that rare thing at Apple: someone working in design not named Jony Ive that people had actually heard of and seen speak on Apple’s behalf, mostly because he was a witness in the long-running Samsung-Apple court case. But he was also a veteran at Apple, there for 21 years, and part of the small Industrial Design team which has been a cohesive unit for a long time. Twenty-one years is a long time to be with any company, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary I’m inclined to ascribe this to someone who’s spent half his career in one place wanting a change of scenery. But of course he’s one of a number of senior Apple people who have left recently, and so it’s easy for a narrative to form here. So far, I’m unconvinced that the recent departures represent anything more than normal turnover among very talented teams in a fairly flat organizational structure, but it’s worth continuing to watch this trend for signs that there’s something more going on.
via The Information