Uber’s chief operating officer Barney Harford and CMO Rebecca Messina are stepping down. In a letter to employees, Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi explained the reasoning behind the departures, saying that recent organizational changes have lessened the significance of the COO and CMO positions.
Primarily, Khosrowshahi said he will take on a more involved role in the company, with the heads of core businesses such as Ridesharing and Uber Eats now reporting directly to him.
“This will allow me to be more hands on and help our leaders problem-solve in real time, while also ensuring that we make our platform vision a reality,” Khosrowshahi said.
Khosrowshah also said Uber will consolidate its marketing, communications, and policy teams into one.
Also: Uber vs. Lyft: How the rivals approach cloud, AI, and machine learning
Uber went public last month and just reported its first quarter financial results last week. The company reported total revenue of $3.1 billion for the quarter and a net loss of more than $1 billion.
“There’s never really a right time to announce departures or changes like this, but with the IPO behind us, I felt this was a good moment to simplify our org and set us up for the future,” Khosrowshahi said.