More Executives Leaving Uber Following President Jeff Jones’s Departure

Jeff Jones, Uber’s president of ride sharing, has left the company after just six months, Recode reported on Sunday.

According to Recode, Jones, said sources, determined that this was not the situation he signed on for, especially after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a search for a new COO to help him right the very troubled ship.

That was not the reason for Jones’s departure, sources said, even though it meant that Kalanick was bringing in a new exec who could outrank him.

Instead, these sources said, Jones determined that the situation at the company was more problematic than he realized.

In addition to Jones's resignation, Brian McClendon, vice president of maps and business platform at Uber, also plans to leave at the end of the month.

According to The New York Times, Mr. McClendon is departing amicably from Uber and will be an adviser to the company, and in a statement, he said he was moving back to Kansas, where he is from, to explore politics.

The New York Times further reported that Raffi Krikorian, a well-regarded director in Uber’s self-driving division, left the company last week, while Gary Marcus, who joined Uber in December after Uber acquired his company, left this month.

Uber also asked for the resignation of Amit Singhal, a top engineer who failed to disclose a sexual harassment claim against him at his previous employer, Google, before joining Uber.

And Ed Baker, another senior executive, left this month as well.

NPR identifies a number of recent scandals that plague Uber, including:

• This month, The New York Times exposed Uber's secret “Greyball” program, established in 2014 to evade authorities worldwide in cities where the service has been banned. Uber later announced it will prohibit the use of the program
• Earlier this year, a social media campaign encouraged consumers to #DeleteUber after CEO Travis Kalanick joined President Trump's economic advisory council - he's since quit
• People accused Uber of trying to profit from Trump's immigration order and ”breaking strike” by lifting surcharge pricing for airport protesters in New York

The situation at the company has further deteriorated after a blog post by former female engineer Susan J. Fowler titled “Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber” reported a deeply dysfunctional management and leadership environment.

Uber’s year hasn’t gone well, and it could get much worse, if it ends up on the losing side of a case filed by Google’s self-driving car project, Waymo.

Read: Fate of Uber and Otto’s Autonomous Vehicles