Uber’s new CEO hires ex-Orbitz chief as COO

Bloomberg

Barney Harford, the former chief executive officer of online travel site Orbitz, has been named chief
operating officer at Uber Technologies Inc., making him the second-highest ranking executive at the ride-hailing company.
Harford, who sits on the board of airline company United Continental Holdings Inc., will oversee global ride-hailing operations, marketing, customer support, and the company’s food-delivery business. It’s the second major hire by Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who in October appointed Tony West— PepsiCo Inc.’s general counsel and a former US Justice Department official—as chief legal officer.
“There is a broader societal benefit here and fundamentally that’s the kind of thing I’m attracted to,” Harford, 45, said in an interview. “It is very clear that the way the company was run before is not acceptable and we absolutely need to change. I know Dara’s way of operating and he knows mine.”
Harford has worked for and competed with Khosrowshahi, 48, in
the online travel business. In 2004, Harford became president for Asia Pacific at Expedia Inc., where Khosrowshahi became CEO in 2005. When Harford took over troubled, debt-laden Orbitz Worldwide Inc. in 2009, he became one of his former boss’s chief rivals.
“Dara and I were both super competitive,” Harford said. “Through all that we remained good friends. That’s just business. That’s just competition. We compete aggressively but we compete in the right way.”
Harford sold Orbitz to Expedia in 2015 for $1.6 billion. Harford has been working as a senior adviser to Khosrowshahi at Uber since October. Harford’s appointment gives Uber another leader with extensive experience in the travel business to help fix the company after a year of scandals under co-founder Travis Kalanick. Harford will have to help figure out how to turn Uber into a profitable business, or stymie the company’s losses. Uber lost $1.5 billion in the third quarter of this year, up from $1.1 billion in the prior quarter. Net revenue increased to $2.01 billion in period, up 21 percent from the previous quarter.
“Obviously Uber is a large global complex business and these two have both proven their intellectual and leadership chops in large global businesses,” said Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, who helped recruit Harford to United’s board.
Khosrowshahi joined Uber after a series of scandals forced Kalanick to resign as CEO. When he started at Uber, he told employees he was leaning against picking a COO.