In Power Move at Uber, Travis Kalanick Appoints 2 to Board<br />The former chief, who holds outsize voting rights at Uber, said he had added Ursula Burns, a former chief executive of Xerox,<br />and John Thain, a former chief executive of Merrill Lynch and the New York Stock Exchange, to the eight-member board.<br />On Thursday, Uber and one of its investors, Goldman Sachs, made a proposal to the board<br />that would reduce Mr. Kalanick’s voting power at the company, according to people briefed on the negotiations, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.<br />In its own statement, Uber said Mr. Kalanick’s move “came as a complete surprise to Uber and its board.”<br />That is why, it added, the company is “working to put in place world-class governance.”<br />The moves underscore the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between Uber and Mr. Kalanick, the company’s co-founder.<br />Since then, the former chief, who holds a seat on Uber’s board, has battled with other board members,<br />including Benchmark, a venture capital firm that was an early investor in the company.<br />If approved, the proposal would also reduce voting power for other early Uber shareholders<br />and board members, including Benchmark, Lowercase Capital and Menlo Ventures.<br />The power plays on Uber’s board are centered on a move made by Mr. Kalanick last year<br />that allowed him to obtain outsize control of several board seats.
