By Douglas MacMillan
Brent Callinicos is stepping down as Uber Technologies Inc.'s
chief financial officer after helping spearhead the car-hailing
service's fastest years of growth.
Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick shared the news of Mr.
Callinicos's departure with investors Monday in an email reviewed
by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Callinicos will stay on as an
adviser to Uber, while no replacement has been named, Mr. Kalanick
told investors.
"Almost two years ago, I brought on one of the great financial
operators in Silicon Valley as our CFO," Mr. Kalanick wrote. "Brent
has done a wonderful job here at Uber but has decided that it is
time for his next journey, one where his wife and daughter take the
front seat."
In an email to staff, Mr. Callinicos thanked the company but
emphasized his desire to spend time with family. "It is time to do
what I have desired for a very long time; time to keep a promise to
my wife of not missing another school play, swim meet, or academic
achievement of our daughter's childhood."
Mr. Callinicos--who joined Uber in 2013 from Google Inc., where
he was treasurer and chief accountant--is one of the highest ranked
executives to depart Uber. He helped the company raise more equity
capital from investors--more than $5 billion--than any private,
venture-backed company in history, according to Dow Jones
VentureSource.
"He will be a legend among startup CFOs," said Erik Gordon, a
professor at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, in
an email. "He raised a mountain of cash at sky-high valuations for
a company with little in the way of proprietary assets and lots of
peculiar risk."
The departure leaves Uber, one of the most highly-anticipated
candidates for an eventual public offering, without a CFO. Gautam
Gupta, formerly a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. vice president who
joined Uber in 2013, will be acting head of finance, Mr. Kalanick
said in the memo.
The company may hope to fill the vacancy with someone with CFO
experience at a public company, a qualification Mr. Callinicos
lacked. Before Google, he spent 15 years in various roles at
Microsoft Corp., including treasurer and finance chief of its
platforms and services division.
Uber was valued at $41 billion in a funding round last December.
The company has raised a total of more than $5 billion in equity
funding from a mix of high-powered investors such as venture firms
Benchmark, First Round Capital and Google Ventures, Chinese
Internet company Baidu Inc., mutual funds BlackRock Inc.and
Fidelity Investments and even Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund.
Mr. Kalanick has sought to bolster his management bench with
technology veterans, including Amazon.com Inc. alum Jeff Holden,
who became Uber's product chief last year, and chief technology
officer Thuan Pham, who joined in 2013 from VMWare Inc.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Amazon.com, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0231351067
Access Investor Kit for Baidu, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0567521085
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P5089
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P7069
Access Investor Kit for VMware, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US9285634021
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires