After long speculations world’s most known ride-hailing service, Uber named Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO.
Khosrowshahi an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, has been handed the reins of the embattled business when Uber’s social image has been hurt and now he is facing the task of repairing worn relations among investors, rebuilding employee morale and creating a profitable business after seven years of losses.
He is also the chief executive of travel company Expedia Inc. He has a bright history of boosting growth while delivering profits. During his time as Expedia’s CEO, Khosrowshahi has made the company the leading business among online traveling agencies.
The 48-year-old Iranian moved to the United States as a child in 1978 with his parents. He has a B.Sc. in engineering from Brown University.
According to Reuters Khosrowshahi, who has run Expedia for 12 years, was not known to the public to be among the top candidates for the job.
With Khosrowshahi’s firm hand on the tiller, Expedia has doubled its annual revenue since 2012 to nearly $8.8 billion in 2016. The company reported net income of $281.8 million for 2016.
He led Expedia through a string of acquisitions since 2014, buying Airbnb rival HomeAway Inc for $3.9 billion, Orbitz Worldwide Inc for $1.3 billion and Travelocity for $280 million, cobbling together an online travel empire. Expedia is the world’s largest online travel agency by bookings.
He has also been blasting Trump’s travel ban, which includes Iran, as “inward-looking” and “reactionary.” Expedia filed a legal challenge to the ban.
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