Dara KhosrowshahiDara Khosrowshahi is an Iranian-American businessman who came to the United States as a child in 1978 with his parents following the Iranian Revolution. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Brown University and got his start at investment bank Allen and Co.
Khosrowshahi has certainly done well for himself - in 2015 he was the highest paid CEO in the country, mainly because of a nearly $91 million stock option grant. He is also on the board of the New York Times Company and sports merchandise company Fanatics Inc.
Under Khosrowshahi's leadership, Expedia more than doubled its annual revenue since 2012 to nearly $8.8 billion in 2016. The company reported net income of $281.8 million for 2016.
In an interview with CNBC in May, he said: "Analysts are focused on margins. I am focused on growth."
He led Expedia through a string of acquisitions since 2014, buying Airbnb rival HomeAway Inc for $3.9 billion, Orbitz Worldwide Inc for $1.3 billion and Travelocity for $280 million, cobbling together an online travel empire. Expedia is the world's largest online travel agency by bookings.
Dara KhosrowshahiHe has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, blasting Trump's travel ban, which includes Iran, as 'inward-looking' and 'reactionary.' Expedia filed a legal challenge to the ban.
At Uber, he would bring an end to a company culture built on founder control. Ousted CEO Travis Kalanick enjoyed sweeping authority on the board and nearly complete autonomy in running the company, a governance style that helped to create a workplace that had few checks and balances.
Uber has been hit by allegations of sexual harassment, a lawsuit alleging trade-secrets theft, a federal criminal probe over use of software to evade city regulators, and allegations of executives mishandling the medical records of a victim who was raped by her Uber driver in India, among other controversies.
Uber was valued at $68 billion at its most recent investment last year, but recently some mutual funds have written down the value of their Uber investment by as much as 15 percent, a sign of wavering confidence in the company.
Despite the controversies, Uber is still a growing company. Last week, the company reported a 16 percent increase in ride bookings and a 17 percent jump in net revenue for the second quarter over the previous period, and its losses shrank by 9 percent.
Read more at: Latest in Business | Uber settles for Iranian-American Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO
