Frances Frei, who is the SVP of Leadership and Strategy at Uber, is departing from her full-time job at the company. She will stay with Uber in an advisory role while creating a new leadership development curriculum for companies, with a focus on women and minorities. She intends to go back to her full-time teaching job at Harvard.
When Frei joined, Uber was in the news for all the wrong reasons. The work environment at Uber was pungent with sexism and sexual harassment, skimpy on ethics and, in general, merciless. Frei obviously had her job cut out for her. Needless to say, she did well.
Frei undertook the training of top management. She assisted the HR in hiring and also helped Uber draft a zero-tolerance policy on harassment. Over 6,000 employees took part in her Harvard Executive Education program. Frei believes feedback should lead to improvement.
In a post-Kalanick Uber world, with CEO Khosrowshahi and a fresh executive team, Frei hopes the ride-hailing firm’s worst is behind it.
We hope so too.