Travis Kalanick stepped down as chief executive of the ride-hailing giant Uber on Tuesday, the culmination of several tumultuous months and a shareholder revolt.
The Uber board said in a statement to the Times that Kalanick had "always put Uber first" and that his resignation would give the company "room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber's history".
Kalanick may be out as CEO, but he won't be gone entirely from the company he helped build.
Travis Kalanick himself issued a statement as well, explaining that "Uber 2.0" was in need of new leadership in order to be successful. The company has been exposed this year as having a workplace culture that is rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, and has pushed the envelope in dealing with law enforcement and even partners.
She repeated that position on Friday in an interview with Reuters by saying Kalanick's leave of absence was exclusively his decision.
Uber's lack of leadership now is a literal problem, not just a figurative one. The group of investors sent a letter to Kalanick yesterday asking for his resignation. In February, Alphabet's self-driving auto unit, Waymo, filed a lawsuit against Uber alleging trade secret theft.
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Kalanick said earlier this month he was taking an indefinite leave of absence, in part to deal with a personal tragedy.
Uber will approach Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to replace Travis Kalanick as the company's CEO, partially because a female would be good for optics, according to the New York Post.
While stepping down from his role as CEO is a large step in the right direction, it brings forward a question: how much influence will Kalanick's voice have on the board in comparison to the other board members? "It's going to be a challenge for Uber", he said.
"A friend recently asked me, 'What went wrong?' and the answer is that we had not listened well enough to those who got us here. our team and especially our drivers", Camp wrote in the post.
The company on Tuesday announced a set of efforts to improve the driver experience (including in-app tipping), but that gesture was quickly overshadowed by the stand-off among leaders at the top. Some of the positions that Uber has open include a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer - and now, obviously, CEO.
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