The popular start-up car service Uber has hired former Obama administration adviser and 2008 Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to direct politics and branding for the company.
Uber made the announcement on Tuesday in a blogpost. Plouffe will serve as as senior vice president of policy and strategy.
In the announcement Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said that Plouffe would be in charge of all “global policy and political activities, communications, and Uber branding efforts.” Here are the key parts of Kalanick’s announcement:
Earlier this year, I made it a top priority for Uber to find a leader who could help cities and citizens understand the Uber mission – someone who believed in our cause, who understood how to build a meaningful brand, who knew how to scale a political campaign, and who knew how to get the support on the ground to win. We needed someone who understood politics but who also had the strategic horsepower to reinvent how a campaign should be run – a campaign for a global company operating in cities from Boston and Beijing to London and Lagos.
So today we are pleased to announce that David Plouffe will be joining Uber as our Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy. Starting in late September, David will be managing all global policy and political activities, communications, and Uber branding efforts. I will look to him as a strategic partner on all matters as Uber grows around the world. David’s background needs little introduction.
Plouffe, in his statement, seemed to take aim at the “taxi industry cartel.” Here is part of his statement:
Uber has the chance to be a once in a decade if not a once in a generation company. Of course, that poses a threat to some, and I’ve watched as the taxi industry cartel has tried to stand in the way of technology and big change. Ultimately, that approach is unwinnable. But I look forward to doing what I can right now to ensure drivers and riders are not denied their opportunity for choice in transportation due to those who want to maintain a monopoly and play the inside game to deny opportunity to those on the outside.
Read the whole announcement here.
Another Benghazi distraction.
Well, if you want to find a manager to direct your dirty tricks, then politics is certainly the right place to go.
I’m not a fan of Uber. No amount of Plouffe’s spin will change my mind either. Driver’s need to pick up 40 hours per week of fares to make 60K a year, plus no benefits, and it makes the cabbies union weaker. Where I live, 60K a year is BARELY enough to make ends meet, and that’s if you have room mates, or others who share the living expenses.