Travis Kalanick appoints Ursula Burns, John Thain to Uber board in clout-bolstering move; Uber says decision “came as a complete surprise to Uber and its board”
Kalanick asserts right to pick directors as questions swirl — Unclear if Uber's new CEO Khosrowshahi supports board choices
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands mid-fight over who controls Uber. The summer's divided-board CEO search ended with Khosrowshahi chosen partly because Whitman demanded too much control, and directors had already worried that a SoftBank investment would hand more power back to Kalanick. A governance proposal explicitly aimed at limiting Kalanick was circulating the same week he exercised his appointment rights.
First-order effects
- Uber's board composition shifts toward Kalanick: Ursula Burns and John Thain join as directors appointed by him, with Uber itself saying the decision came as a complete surprise to the company and its board.
- Whether Khosrowshahi supports the choices is unclear, leaving the new CEO's authority over his own board in question from day one.
Second-order effects
- The appointments land just before a Tuesday meeting on whether to pursue the SoftBank deal — the very transaction directors feared would amplify Kalanick's influence — so his picks now sit in judgment of it.
- Uber formally accepted Thain and Burns within days (ahead of that meeting), meaning the governance faction pushing to clip Kalanick's power must work around two allies he installed.
Third-order effects
- If unilateral director appointments stand while the anti-Kalanick governance proposal stalls, the precedent is that founder share classes can outmaneuver formal reform — pushing Uber toward either negotiated coexistence or litigation over voting structure.
- The episode becomes a test case for how much control founders retain after handing over the CEO title, shaping how future boards write appointment and voting clauses into founder agreements.
The trend: Founder-control battles are moving from the CEO seat to the boardroom, where appointment rights become the lever once the title is gone.