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As former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder released a list of recommendations to improve Uber's toxic culture, CEO Travis Kalaninck took a leave of absence, and David Bonderman stepped down from the board.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Its clear from former Attorney General Eric Holders recommendations on how to fix Ubers dysfunctional management that the male-dominated company grew huge without even the most basic procedures to prevent sexual harassment, bullying and other bad behavior.

The 13-page document from Holders firm Covington & Burling LLP released Tuesday exposes a startup-turned-goliath that permitted misconduct, had few policies to protect employees and ran with little board supervision.

The recommendations , adopted unanimously by Ubers board, show clearly that the next version of Uber, called 2.0 by CEO co-founder Travis Kalaninck, will have to be much different from the free-wheeling company that flouted regulations and disrupted the taxi business to become the worlds largest ride-hailing company.

Kalanick told employees Tuesday that hed be taking an indefinite leave of absence.

A culture change at Uber may be more difficult than former Attorney General Eric Holder envisions. At an employee meeting to unveil the recommendations, board member David Bonderman, a hedge fund founder, remarked that if a woman was added to the board that there likely would be more talking, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo. He later apologized for the disrespectful comment in an email.

It was inappropriate, he wrote.

By evening, Bonderman resigned from the board and put out a statement saying, I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud.

Bonderman, a University of Washington graduate, was announced last week as a partner in the Oak View Group, which was selected by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray as the preferred choice to renovate KeyArena.

And in another strange twist, board member and hedge fund partner David Bonderman resigned Tuesday night after making what he called an inappropriate remark about women at a meeting to explain Holders recommendations to employees.

The Holder investigation started after former engineer Susan Fowler posted a blog in February detailing harassment during the year she spent at Uber, writing that she was propositioned by her manager on her first day with an engineering team. She reported him to human resources, but was told he would get a lecture and no further punishment because he was a high performer, she wrote.

After interviewing 200 witnesses, Holder had to make such basic recommendations as setting clear policies to protect workers from harassment, and that the human resources department get a better handle on keeping records and tracking employee complaints. It even suggests such simple procedures as using performance reviews to hold leaders accountable and requiring all employees to turn in receipts so the company can make sure expenses match its values.

The recommendations definitely paint a picture of a company that was out of control and pretty chaotic, says Elizabeth Ames, a senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, a nonprofit aimed at advancing women in the technology business.

Holder also suggests that Uber change its written cultural values to promote positive behavior, inclusion and collaboration. The company should eliminate values that justified poor behavior, such as Always Be Hustlin, Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping and Principled Confrontation.

Holder also called for trimming Kalanicks job duties, shifting day-to-day functions to a yet-to-be-hired chief operating officer. During Kalanicks leave, his leadership team will run the troubled company.

Kalanick wrote that he needs time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident. He also said hes responsible for the companys situation and needs to become a better leader echoing comments the 40-year-old CEO made earlier this year after a heated argument with an Uber driver over pay was captured on video.

Ames said the recommendations were strong but indicated Uber had few policies, and the ones it had were not followed.

The board unanimously approved the recommendations on Sunday, including a suggestion that a senior executive be tasked with making sure they are implemented. Apparently because of distrust of some leaders, Holder recommended that care be taken to make sure the executive is viewed positively by the employees.

The company released only Holders recommendations, not his full report, citing the need to protect employees who complained.

Liane Hornsey, Ubers chief human resources officer, said implementing the recommendations will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.

Holder also recommended adding independent directors and replacing the board chairman, co-founder Garrett Camp, with an independent person. The board currently has eight voting members, three from within the company.

Uber was also advised to diversify its workforce. Its diversity figures are similar to the rest of Silicon Valley, with low numbers for women and underrepresented minorities. In the U.S., less than a third of Ubers workers are female.

In addition, the report says diversity and inclusiveness should be a key value thats included in management training.

After Fowler posted her blog, Uber Technologies Inc. made changes in human resources and opened a 24-hour employee hotline. Last week, the company fired 20 people including some managers at the recommendation of Perkins Coie, which separately investigated 215 employee complaints.

On Sunday, Emil Michael, Ubers senior vice president for business and a close ally of Kalanick, left the company.

Under Kalanick, Uber has disrupted the taxi industry and turned the San Francisco-based company into the worlds most valuable startup. Ubers valuation has climbed to nearly $70 billion.

Besides the harassment complaints, in recent months Uber has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation over its use of a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it is breaking local laws.

A company can be aggressive yet have strong values, said Joseph Holt, a business ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame. He cited Starbucks as example.

Having a good reputation for ethics is a competitive advantage, Holt said.

At the employee meeting Tuesday morning, Bonderman remarked that if a woman was added to the board that there likely would be more talking, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo.

By evening, Bonderman resigned and put out a statement saying the comment was careless and inappropriate. I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud, the statement said.

____

Krisher and Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed from Detroit.

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Uber recommendations show company was 'out of control' - The Seattle Times

Board member David Bonderman has issued an apology to the board and all Uber employees for the following exchange with Ariana Huffington, also a member of the board:

Huffington: "There's a lot of data that shows when there's a woman on the board it's much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board."

Bonderman: "Actually, what it shows is that it's much more likely to be more talking."

Huffington: "Oh, come on, David."

Huffington:

"Let us all address the elephant in the room where is Travis?"

"The War Room is no more. It has been renamed the Peace Room."

"We need to judge ourselves going forward, from today on what we're doing right now, on the actions we are taking."

Bonderman:

"The company has been run as though it was a small start up... but now it's not. It has to have training programs, it has to have appropriate governance and oversight. All of these are contained in the committee recommendations."

"You're going to read negative things in the press. We can overcome it all."

Bill Gurley, board member:

"We have to self police and help everyone understand that we need to be doing things we're proud of at all times"

Angela Padilla, member of Uber's legal team:

"We understood that Susan's [blog] post described not just specific facts... but also a broader company culture of certain kinds of toxic behavior."

Liane Hornsey, Uber's HR chief:

"There will not be 14 values on how individuals behave. There will be values on how we behave collectively as an Uber team."

"We will introduce part-time working for those who want it."

"We have to have a diversity advisory board...so we can get very, very serious here."

"We are all accountable to each other because of what we've just been through."

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Uber's board accepts all of Eric Holder's recommendations - Axios

Ubers board of directors voted unanimously to adopt all recommendations of a report that was conducted after allegations of sexual harassment and other issues at the company came to light, according to a representative for the board.

In the meeting on Sunday, the board adopted recommendations from the Holder Report, conducted by former Attorney General Eric HolderEric H. HolderOvernight Tech: Uber CEO taking leave of absence | Senators unveil goals for driverless car bill | Court strikes down FCC prison phone caps | Verizon closes Yahoo deal Uber board member joked women talk too much during meeting on sexism Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to take leave of absence MORE and Tammy Albarrn after a months-long investigation on the company's internal practices. The independent investigation was galvanized by former Uber employee Susan Fowler who wrote a blog post detailing allegedly ignored and mishandled issues of sexual harassment at the ride-hailing company.

The recommendations will be released to employees Tuesday, according to the board representative.

One of Holder's recommendations was firing Emil Michael, Kalanick's chief deputy at the company. A source familiar with move confirmed to The Hill on Monday that Michael is no longer with Uber.

Beginning with my first day at Uber, I have been committed to building a diverse Business Team that would be widely recognized as the best in the technology world: one that is welcoming to people of all genders, sexual orientations, national origins and educational backgrounds, Michael said in a farewell email to his colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times. "I am proud that our group has made so much progress toward these goals and is a leader in the company in many of these categories.

Fowlers post in February has contributed to the scrutiny of Ubers culture, particularly in regard to its treatment of women. Kalanick has also contributed to the companys negative publicity in recent months after Bloomberg published a video showing him berating a driver and a Recode report detailing a cavalier memo he sent employees in 2013, among other missteps that have happened or come to light this year.

Uber is also embroiled in a legal battle with Alphabets self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo, who alleges that Uber stole important documents on self-driving car technology and faces a criminal probe for Greyball technology it used to mislead regulators in cities it operated in.

The turmoil has prompted a significant number of executives to leave the company in recent months.

--Harper Neidig contributed to this report, which was updated at 1:00 p.m.

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Uber board to adopt recommendations of Eric Holder investigation - The Hill

The Uber board of directors voted unanimously to adopt all recommendations from a report stemming from allegations of sexual harassment at the company and other employee concerns, a board representative said on Sunday.

The board, at a meeting on Sunday, adopted a series of recommendations from former US Attorney General Eric Holder following a sprawling, multi-month investigation into Ubers cultures and practices.

The recommendations will be released to Uber employees on Tuesday, said the representative, who declined to be identified.

Holder and his law firm were retained by Uber in February to investigate company practices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and the lack of a suitable response by senior managers.

The recommendations in Holders firms report are expected to force greater controls on spending, human resources and other areas where executives led by Chief Executive Travis Kalanick have had a surprising amount of autonomy for a company with more than 12,000 employees, a source familiar with the matter said.

The meeting, which Uber did not publicize, is a pivotal moment for the worlds most valuable venture-backed private company that has upended the tightly regulated taxi industry in many countries but has also run into legal trouble with a rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and the way it handles employees and drivers.

Ubers image, culture and practices have been largely defined by Kalanicks brash approach, company insiders and investors previously told Reuters.

Also at the meeting on Sunday, board members were expected to discuss Kalanick temporarily stepping away from the embattled ride-hailing firm possibly returning to a role with less authority and other changes to executive leadership.

The company also plans to appoint Wan Ling Martello, an executive vice president at Nestle SA, to the board, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The boards decisions follow a series of public-relations crises for Uber. The company faces a criminal probe related to a technology it created called Greyball that was used to deceive regulators in cities where it was operating.

Ubers self-driving car program is in jeopardy after a lawsuit from Alphabet alleging trade secrets theft, and the company has suffered an exodus of several of its top executives.

One Uber investor called the boards decisions on Sunday a step in the right direction, giving Uber an opportunity to reboot.

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Uber to adopt recommendations from Eric Holder probe | New ...

SAN FRANCISCO Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] Chief Executive Travis Kalanick is likely to take a leave of absence from the troubled ride-hailing company, but no final decision has yet been made, according to a source familiar with the outcome of a Sunday board meeting.

Emil Michael, senior vice president and a close Kalanick ally, has left the company, the source said.

At the Sunday meeting, the company's board adopted a series of recommendations from the law firm of former U.S Attorney General Eric Holder following a sprawling, multi-month investigation into Uber's culture and practices, according to a board representative.

Uber will tell employees about the recommendations on Tuesday, said the representative, who declined to be identified.

The company is also adding a new independent director, Nestle executive and Alibaba board member Wan Ling Martello, a company spokesman said.

Holder and his law firm were retained by Uber in February to investigate company practices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing what she described as sexual harassment and a lack of a suitable response by senior managers.

The recommendations in Holder's firm's report place greater controls on spending, human resources and other areas where executives led by Kalanick have had a surprising amount of autonomy for a company with more than 12,000 employees, sources familiar with the matter said.

Kalanick and two allies on the board have voting control of the company. Kalanick's forceful personality and enormous success with Uber to date, as well as his super-voting shares, have won him broad deference in the boardroom, according to the people familiar with the deliberations.

Any decision to take a leave of absence will ultimately be Kalanick's, one source said.

The world's most valuable venture-backed private company has found itself at a crossroads as its rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and handling employees and drivers has led to a series of problems.

It is facing a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice over its use of a software tool that helped its drivers evade local transportation regulators, sources have told Reuters.

Last week, Uber said it fired 20 staff after another law firm looked into 215 cases encompassing complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, unprofessional behavior, bullying and other employee claims.

SILICON VALLEY SHOCK

Even a temporary departure by Kalanick would be a shock for the Silicon Valley startup world, where company founders in recent years have enjoyed more autonomy and often become synonymous with their firms.

Uber's image, culture and practices have been largely defined by Kalanick's brash approach, company insiders and investors previously told Reuters.

Uber board member Arianna Huffington said in March that Kalanick needed to change his leadership style from that of a "scrappy entrepreneur" to be more like a "leader of a major global company." The board has been looking for a chief operating officer to help Kalanick run the company since March.

The debate over Kalanick's future comes as he is also facing a personal trauma: His mother died last month in a boating accident, in which his father was also badly injured.

Michael, described by employees as Kalanick's closest deputy, has been a recurring flashpoint for controversy at the company.

He once discussed hiring private investigators to probe the personal lives of reporters writing stories faulting the company. Kalanick disavowed and publicly criticized the comments.

Michael will be replaced as the company's top business development executive by David Richter, currently an Uber vice president, the company spokesman said.

Alongside Uber's management crisis, its self-driving car program is in jeopardy after a lawsuit from Alphabet Inc alleging trade secrets theft, and the company has suffered an exodus of top executives.

One Uber investor called the board's decisions on Sunday a step in the right direction, giving Uber an "opportunity to reboot."

(Reporting by Heather Somerville and Joseph Menn; Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli)

TAIPEI Apple Inc and computing giant Dell Inc will join a Foxconn-led consortium bidding for Toshiba Corp's highly prized chip unit, the CEO of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer told Reuters on Monday.

NEW YORK Apple shares were stung by a broker downgrade for a second straight week on Monday, sending the stock lower to keep the tech sector under pressure for a second straight session.

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Uber CEO Kalanick likely to take leave, SVP Michael out: source - Reuters