Tech: Travis Kalanick is taking time away from Uber

Travis Kalanick is taking time away from Uber

Travis Kalanick is taking time away from Uber to deal with his family tragedy, according to an email sent to the company.

Kalanick will also be stripped of some duties and the board will appoint an independent chair to "limit his influence", Bloomberg reported.

It's not known when he'll return. Uber did not respond to immediate request for comment.

"Recent events have brought home for me that people are more important than work, and that I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve my mother, whom I buried on Friday, to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team," Kalanick wrote in the e-mail, obtained first by Recode.

The CEO had been weighing a leave of absence from the company that's been grappling with a series of cascading crises. Kalanick has also been dealing with his own personal tragedy after the unexpected loss of his mother during a boating accident over Memorial Day weekend.

Even a few hours before Tuesday's company meeting, Kalanick had reportedly not made up his mind on what he wanted to do.

His recusal from the company was not a recommendation from the Holder report, but something Uber's board discussed with the CEO during an emergency board meeting on Sunday. On Monday, his right-hand man and closest confidant, Emil Michael, left the company.

As part of the report, Holder did recommend that Kalanick's responsibilites be reviewed and reallocated. "The Board should evaluate the extent to which some of the responsbilites that Mr. Kalanick has historically possesed should be shared or given outright to other members of senior management," the report said.

It also recommended that Uber continue its search for a Chief Operating Officer who could act as a "full partner" to the CEO, but one who focuses on the day-to-day operations and company culture.

"For Uber 2.0 to succeed there is nothing more important than dedicating my time to building out the leadership team," Kalanick wrote in his email. "But if we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve."

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