This week at Uber HQ, the company’s senior vice-president of global public policy and communications, Rachel Whetstone, has resigned. Whetstone came to Uber following a stint at Google and has been with the ride-hailing company for two years. “I am incredibly proud of the team that we’ve built — and that, just as when I left Google, a strong and brilliant woman will be taking my place,” Whetstone said of her departure in a statement given to Recode. “I joined Uber because I love the product — and that love is as strong today as it was when I booked my very first ride six years ago.”
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick emailed his entire staff informing them of Whetstone’s departure. “She is a force of nature, an extraordinary talent and an amazing player-coach who has built a first-class organization,” Kalanick wrote. “Importantly, Rachel was way ahead of the game when it came to many of the changes we needed to make as a company to ensure our future success — from promoting cross-functional teamwork to improving diversity and inclusion.” (That whole “improving diversity and inclusion” thing, as anybody who has been following the Uber saga post-Susan Fowler knows, could still use a whole lot of work.) Whetstone’s number two, Jill Hazelbaker, will step up into her boss’s former role, Recode also reports.
Whetstone is just the latest in a string of recent departures from Uber. In March, president Jeff Jones resigned after only six months of working for the company. Prior to that, Uber’s senior vice-president of engineering, Amit Singhal, was forced to resign after it was discovered he had failed to disclose allegations of sexual harassment levied against him during his time at Google, prior to joining Uber.
