The celebrity chief brand officer of Uber, Bozoma Saint John, is leaving after only one year to be the chief marketing officer for talent agency Endeavor.
Saint John was brought on in June 2017 and in her short tenure, became the public face of Uber; speaking at tech conferences, as well as appearing in major magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and New York Magazine.
Before joining the transport company, Saint John, who is one of the few black women in a top Silicon Valley executive position worked with Apple, where she was the head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes.
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Her time with Uber started just days before its co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down in a move that was necessitated by a former female engineer, Susan Fowler’s outing of the firm for having a chaotic company culture rife with sexual harassment. Like most tech companies, Uber has also been criticized for its lack of workforce diversity.
In an emailed statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said. “Boz joined Uber at a time when the company was hurting — but her energy, optimism and creativity have been a key part of our ongoing turnaround.” Adding that “I want to thank Boz for her contributions over the last year.”
During the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last September, Bozoma Saint John said “I was very aware of what I was walking into… for me, the important thing was to figure out how to manage this brand.”
Uber since then has cut a nicer, much cleaner image with Khosrowshahi going ahead to appear in a high-profile ad campaign, saying, Uber will adhere to its new core value of “doing the right thing” and also take responsibility for its mistakes.
With Saint John leaving after Frances Frei’s earlier exit in February, the ride-hailing company now has fewer female executives left. Frei was with Uber for only nine months. In January, Bo Young Lee was hired to be the company’s first diversity and inclusion officer.
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