Uber ropes in Orbitz CEO Barney Harford as its COO

Former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford has formally accepted the position of Chief Operating officer at Uber, thus ending the latter’s search for a COO for quite some time.

Former CEO Travis Kalanick in early March disclosed that he would be searching for someone for filling up the position of COO, amidst allegations that he had fostered a culture of sexism and achievement at any cost. The company continued to suffer a number of setbacks in the months following, including Kalanick’s resignation, a lawsuit from Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo and a Department of Justice investigation.

Harford, who also sits on the board of the airline company United, had been working in the capacity of an advisor at Uber since October, spending the last few months learning how Uber works and how to improve operations.

However, this is not the first time he’s worked with Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Harford, who took on the role of CEO at Orbitz in 2009, later sold the company to Expedia in 2015 for $1.6 billion. Khosrowshahi was the CEO of Expedia then. Harford was Expedia company president for Asia-Pacific from 2004 to 2006.

Harford will now report directly to Khosrowshahi in the new role, making him the second highest-ranking executive at Uber. However, Khosrowshahi was earlier reportedly heard telling employees when he took on the new role in September that he might not pick a new COO.

Uber’s losses grew to $1.5 billion last quarter. According to the company, Harford will be responsible for “global operations, marketing and customer support for both the ridesharing business as well as Uber Eats”.