Uber[1] board member Arianna Huffington blamed a "burnout culture" for fuelling sexism at the world's leading smartphone-summoned ride sharing service.
Huffington credited Uber co-founder and ousted boss Travis Kalanick[2] with driving the startup to a nearly $70 billion valuation.
However new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi is the steady hand needed now on the wheel, Huffington said late Monday at the Wall Street Journal D.Live conference in Laguna Beach, California.
"I totally believe that going forward, we will end the cult of the top performer," Huffington said in an on-stage interview at the event.
"Why did Harvey Weinstein last that long?" she asked rhetorically, referring to the front-page Hollywood sexual abuse scandal.
"The cult of someone who delivers results," she said, a cult that is also "prevalent" in Silicon Valley.
Uber launched an "urgent investigation" early this year after an engineer who worked at the company until late 2016 alleged that her manager made sexual advances shortly after she joined.
She wrote in a blog post that she complained to more senior managers and the company's human resources department, but was told that it was the man's "first offense" and that they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing a "high performer."
The woman said she met other female Uber engineers who said they had experienced similar harassment.
Uber hired former attorney general Eric Holder to review workplace conditions after the allegations. The probe resulted in firings and an outline for needed changes.
War talk
Huffington, a wealthy businesswoman, author, and co-founder of the Huffington Post news site, said that when she joined the Uber board in early 2016 the startup "worshipped at the altar of hyper-growth," with stellar results absolving bad behavior.
Cultural...