Uber Technologies Inc director David Bonderman said on Tuesday that he has resigned from the company’s board following a remark he m...
Uber Technologies Inc director David Bonderman said
on Tuesday that he has resigned from the company’s board following a
remark he made during an Uber staff meeting that was widely seen as
offensive to women.
Bonderman’s ill-timed remark came during an all-staff meeting Tuesday
to discuss of how the ride-services company plans to transform itself
following a probe into sexual harassment at the company.
Bonderman said in a statement sent to Reuters that he did not want
his comments to create distraction for Uber, which is working to rid its
culture of sexual harassment and discrimination.
His resignation from the board is effective Wednesday morning.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Uber board member Arianna Huffington spoke
to employees about the importance of adding more women to the board of
directors.
“There’s a lot of data that shows when there’s one woman on the
board, it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the
board,” Huffington said.
In response, Bonderman said: “Actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking.”
The comment was disclosed through a recording of the meeting that was
published by Yahoo. An Uber spokesman verified the authenticity and
accuracy of the recording.
Bonderman, who is a founder of private equity firm TPG Capital, an
Uber investor, shortly after wrote an email to Uber staff to apologize.
In his resignation statement that followed on Tuesday evening,
Bonderman reiterated his regret, calling his remarks “careless,
inappropriate, and inexcusable” and “the opposite of what I intended.”
“I take full responsibility for that,” he said. “I need to hold myself to the same standards that we’re asking Uber to adopt.”
Bonderman and other board members had joined Tuesday’s staff meeting
to lay out recommendations from an investigation into sexual harassment,
diversity, inclusion and other employee concerns led by former U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder.
Holder’s law firm was retained by Uber in February after former Uber
engineer Susan Fowler wrote a public account of her time at the company,
which she said was marred by sexual harassment and an ineffective
response by management.
The recommendations, which were unanimously adopted by the board on
Sunday, call for reducing Chief Executive Travis Kalanick’s sweeping
authority at the firm and instituting more controls over spending, human
resources and the behavior of managers.
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