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Portrait of Dara Khosrowshahi.

Dara Khosrowshahi

The professional manager’s manager — CEO of Uber and former CEO of Expedia, the executive brought in to repair troubled companies rather than found them.

Uber · Ride-hailing, technology, gig economy · est. 2009

Born in Tehran in 1969; his Iranian family fled after the 1979 revolution and rebuilt in the US. BS in electrical engineering from Brown (1991). Allen & Company (1991–98); IAC/USA Networks under Barry Diller (1998–2005); CEO of Expedia Group (2005–2017), which he expanded via Travelocity, Orbitz, and HomeAway; CEO of Uber since 2017, brought in to professionalise the company after the Travis Kalanick scandals.

Notable achievements

  • Grew Expedia Group as CEO (2005–2017) via Travelocity, Orbitz, and HomeAway.
  • Became CEO of Uber (2017) and led its cultural and regulatory turnaround.
  • Took Uber public in its May 2019 IPO.
  • Widely credited as the "cleanup CEO" who steered Uber toward profitability.

Find them online

Uber

Stories about Dara Khosrowshahi

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, subject of a case study on the professional manager and the gig economy.
tech17 min read

Dara Khosrowshahi: The Cleanup CEO of Uber

Dara Khosrowshahi built Expedia by acquisition and then rescued Uber from the Kalanick-era wreckage, taking it public in 2019. A sourced, critically neutral case study of the professional manager as a type — the cleanup, the Khashoggi misstep, and the contested 292-to-1 pay ratio.

Dara Khosrowshahi