Longtime Expedia executive Nikki Krishnamurthy has a new role at Uber. According to a report by Recode, Krishnamurthy joined the ride-hailing company to lead human resources, recruiting, workplace and diversity and inclusion.
The news comes just a few months after Krishnamurthy left Expedia, where she spent eight years as a human resources executive. She was most recently the company’s chief people officer.
Moving to Uber makes sense for Krishnamurthy. Longtime Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took the reins at the company last year and has been revamping its executive team, including hiring former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford to serve as his COO. Orbitz was acquired by Expedia in 2015.
Krishnamurthy is likely to have a challenge on her hands. Prior to Khosrowshahi’s addition, Uber was rocked by a series of scandals, including public uproar after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published details of extensive sexual harassment she experienced while at the company.
That incident was followed by an outside investigation of Uber’s workplace culture. That and other controversies led founding CEO Travis Kalanick to resign.
Speaking Tuesday at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Uber Chief Legal Counsel Tony West said the company’s recent difficulties compelled him to take the job.
“Why do people climb great mountains? It was a huge, huge challenge,” he said, adding that he and other executives are working to rebuild trust in the company.
Uber has a large and growing engineering office in Seattle, with 200 employees. Uber also employs 50 people at a separate operations office in Seattle, where it has more than 15,000 active drivers and more than 800,000 active riders as of December 2017.
Before joining Expedia, Krishnamurthy worked at Washington Mutual and PNC Financial Services Group. She graduated with a psychology degree from Rutgers University.
