Gurley didn't respond to a request for comment. Uber had been rocked by an unrelenting parade of controversies, including allegations of widespread sexual harrassment and a series of executive departures that culminated in the board last Tuesday adopting 47 reforms aimed at overhauling Uber's workplace. That's when Kalanick, 40, said he would be taking an indefinite leave, in part, to allow him to grieve for his mother, who had died just weeks earlier.īut it was clear almost from the start that Kalanick's return to Uber was going to be contested, according to several people knowledgeable about what happened at Uber over the past week. From the moment his leave was announced, some people who knew Kalanick were skeptical that - based on how he had managed the company over eight years - he could change in the ways that would be necessary to allow him to return. 'A vacation doesn't fix what he suffers from.' 'Talking to other shareholders, most of us don't see how Travis can ever come back to Uber as CEO,' one large Uber investor told The Washington Post the day after Kalanick began his leave, speaking on the condition of anonymity so he could discuss matters candidly. Gurley's renegade band of investors lacked the power to force Kalanick to step down.
