Uber tech chief Thuan Pham steps down as ride-hailing company reportedly weighs job cuts
- Thuan Pham has served as chief technology officer at ride-hailing company Uber for seven years
- The company is said to be mulling job cuts of as much as 20 per cent, with its business hit hard by the coronavirus’ impact on the travel industry
The company may also be mulling job cuts of as much as 20 per cent, according to tech news site the Information, which also reported on Pham’s departure earlier on Tuesday. Uber had about 27,000 employees at the end of last year.
An Uber spokesman declined to comment on the possible job cuts. “As you would expect, the company is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever,” he said.
Members of Uber’s engineering team will be performing Pham’s duties until the company finds a permanent CTO, the spokesman said. A search effort is currently under way.
Pham, born in Vietnam, left the country as a refugee in 1979 and immigrated to the US. He earned a masters in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked at a variety of tech companies, including as an executive at software maker VMware, before joining Uber as its CTO in 2013.
Pham notified the company on April 24 he was resigning effective May 16, according to filings. In a statement, Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi said he was “grateful” for Pham’s tenure. “As the leader of our engineering organisation for the last seven years, Thuan has made important contributions that have helped make Uber into the global technology platform it is today,” Khosrowshahi said.