Uber hires Nelson Chai as CFO, ahead of potential IPO

Nelson Chai is Uber’s new chief financial
officer.
Uber

• Uber has a new chief financial officer, the company
  announced Tuesday.
• Nelson Chai, the former CFO of Merrill Lynch, will take
  on the role, which has been open since 2015.
• Chai is a key hire in Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s plan
  to take the company public in 2019.

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After three years of searching, Uber has filled a key executive
role necessary to move forward with its plans to hold an initial
public offering in 2019. 

Nelson Chai has joined Uber as its CFO, the company announced
Tuesday. Previously, Chai served as CFO of Merrill Lynch, and was
most recently CEO of the Warranty Group, an insurance and
warranty provider based in Chicago.

“I’m incredibly excited to bring on someone as experienced and
thoughtful as Nelson,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
“He will be a great partner for me and the entire management team
as we move towards becoming a public company.”

Chai’s hire comes after
a three-year-long search to fill the spot, left vacant when
Brent Callinicos — an ex-Googler and current executive at
Hyperloop — left the startup. 

Khosrowshahi, who joined Uber in August 2017,
reportedly picked VMware’s CFO Zane Rowe for the role in
April, but Rowe turned down the job.

Since then, the company has lost two key executives. Uber Chief
Brand Officer Bozoma Saint John
left the company in June after just a year in her role.
Last week, Chief People Office Liane Hornsey
stepped down ahead of a report by Reuters that she had been
the subject of an investigation over how she handled racial
discrimination complaints.

Uber was last valued at $69 billion at the time of its last
venture capital round. However, earlier this year, SoftBank
purchased shares of the company at $48 billion valuation — a
steep discount that raises questions about the valuation of the
company at the time this IPO does come about.