Uber Has a New COO and he’s From Orbitz

Uber Technologies Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has named the former chief executive of Orbitz as its new chief operating officer.

Barney Harford will be second-in-command to Dara Khosrowshahi who recently became the company’s new CEO.

Harford was the former CEO of Orbitz Worldwide Inc., an online travel service. He will be joining Uber on January 2nd, the day after the new year begins. He also has experience working for Expedia.

This is the first COO for the company and the second significant person that Khosrowshahi has hired after he put former
PepsiCo executive Tony West onto the company’s team as General Counsel.

It was just this past August that Khosrowshahi became the company’s new CEO as the company has been in the midst of sexual harassment allegations, data privacy issues, and even a lawsuit about trade secrets.