Uber’s Management Guru Frances Frei Departs After Eight Months

• February 27 2018
• Kristy Westgard

Frances Frei, the woman Uber Technologies Inc. brought on to help clean house in a punishing year, is leaving the company after eight months.

Frances Frei, the woman Uber Technologies Inc. brought on to help clean house in a punishing year, is leaving the company after eight months.

During Frei’s tenure, Uber conducted multiple workplace investigations into human-resources violations by staff and ousted Travis Kalanick as chief executive officer. Frei, the senior vice president for leadership and strategy, had been tapped to train executives on a program she designed as a professor at Harvard Business School. She was on the management committee running the company until the board selected Kalanick’s replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi.

Frei will serve as an adviser to Uber as she embarks on her own project to devise a leadership development program for executives centering on women and minorities. She plans to return to Harvard Business School upon completion of her new initiative. Her departure was reported earlier Tuesday by technology website Recode.

“Frances has made an incredible contribution to Uber at a critical time in our company’s history, from building and running a first-of-its-kind leadership and education program to helping our new leaders be set up for success,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Uber hired Frei in June amid an internal crisis and executive exodus. Uber was grappling with an ongoing legal tussle with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, and allegations of harassment, discrimination and an aggressive company culture. Only two weeks into Frei’s new gig, Kalanick resigned. Since then, the Waymo suit has been settled, and Khosrowshahi is beginning to set a new course for the business.