‘Nobody is Perfect’: Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit<br />With Jeff Holden, a product executive at the company, Mr. York helped Mr. Kalanick formulate Uber’s now-infamous list of 14 cultural values a few<br />years ago, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.<br />“Nobody is perfect, but I fundamentally believe he can evolve into the leader Uber needs today and<br />that he’s critical to its success,” Mr. York wrote in an email to fellow Uber employees, titled “Supporting Travis.” “I want the board to hear from Uber employees that it’s [sic] made the wrong decision in pressuring Travis to leave and that he should be reinstated in an operational role.”<br />The 1,000 clicks the petition received represent a small fraction of Uber’s more than 15,000 employees.<br />Late Tuesday, Mr. Kalanick, 40, said he would step down as Uber’s chief executive after a coterie of investors<br />— including Benchmark, one of the company’s biggest shareholders — pushed for him to resign.<br />Starting late Wednesday, Uber employees circulated a petition asking the company’s board of directors to bring back Mr. Kalanick in an active role.<br />Mr. York is close to Mr. Kalanick.<br />The employee petition began when Michael York, a product manager, called for people to rally their support around Mr. Kalanick.<br />By MIKE ISAAC and KATIE BENNERJUNE 22, 2017<br />Uber and its investors are facing a backlash over Travis Kalanick’s departure as chief executive — particularly from employees.<br />Mr. Kalanick’s resignation stunned many in Silicon Valley who viewed his position as secure, because he holds plenty of Uber’s stock<br />and because he built the ride-hailing service into a nearly $70 billion company in just eight years.
