It has hired Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei as SVP for leadership and strategy function.
Uber is well known for hiring graduates from top B-schools for various management roles. Now the cab aggregator has taken a step further and started approaching B-school faculty for various management roles.
It has hired Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei as SVP for leadership and strategy function. She will report to Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber.
Frances has served at Harvard Business School as senior associate dean for executive education. She is well recognised for her contribution in organisational transformation.
Frances will join the company as full time employee and will work with Liane Hornsey, CHRO, Uber. She will help Liane and advise her in areas like company strategy and planning, organisational transformation and design, and management and leadership. Being a lady with proven skills and qualities, she will coach and help in architecting Uber’s cultural philosophy.
This is an important recruitment from the company’s perspective, as it has been facing several complaints of sexual harassment from employees. Recently, one of its engineers, Susan Fowler, revealed that the HR team ignored her complaint. Uber has promised to follow up on the complaints, carry out an internal investigation into the workplace culture and publish the findings.
At HBS, Frances is well known for changing the curriculum and culture to improve gender equality. Uber wants to improve its culture through her.
Frances has authored a best-selling book, Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customer at the Core of Your Business. She has researched on how leaders can create a context for organisations and help individuals thrive. She has worked with several senior executives as personal advisor in matters of cultural change and organisational transformations.
According to Uber, its leadership team and several employees have already interacted with Frances during the last two months. These interactions have helped Frances better understand the company. She will bring change in the company culture and other strategic functions with her expertise.