Uber’s Chief Technology Officer Thuan Pham has resigned, effective May 16th, the ride hailing company announced in a SEC filing. Pham joined the company in 2013 and became the company’s longest-serving top executive.
Pham states in the filing: “While the work is never done, I feel comfortable hanging my hat at a time when the Uber engineering team is at peak productivity, we have built robust system scale and stability, and are well prepared to face the future. This has been a labour of love for me and I am so proud of what we have done as a team”
The Vietnamese man made it big after escaping from his country with his mother and brother. After spending 10 months at an Indonesian refugee camp, he arrived in Maryland. Pham would eventually attend MIT, and end up at Uber after a series of promising appointments in different companies including Hewlett Packard and Silicon Graphics, whose co-founder Jim Clark later co-found Netscape. Pham stood to make about $200 million from Uber’s IPO last year and owned 5.4 million shares at the time.
The Chief Technology Officer’s departure comes at a crucial time for Uber as stay-at home orders around the world cause its demands to severely plunge. The ride-hailing company expects an impairment charge of up to $2.2 billion in the first quarter due to the outbreak. The revenue is expected to nosedive by $17 million to $22 million. As a result, massive layoffs are being proposed at the company to preserve its dwindling capital reserves.
Uber is discussing plans to cut out about 20% of its staff. This would affect upwards of 5400 Uber employees, 800 out of which could come from Pham’s 3800 member engineering team. Although the job cuts haven’t been finalised, the company is expected to announce them in phases over the coming weeks.
