Uber brings on 2 execs from Amazon and Dropbox to woo more businesses into expensing rides for employees

pulse

March 23, 2017 5:01 PM

Amazon veteran Adrian Agostini and Dropbox former Julie Herendeen are joining Uber for Business.

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Uber is deepening its push into winning corporate business accounts and has brought on two industry veterans to add to its Uber for Business team.

Dropbox veteran Julie Herendeen started this week as Uber's new global head of enterprise marketing. Amazon's Adrian as Uber's new VP of revenue to lead its enterprise sales.

Herendeen had previously lead marketing for Dropbox before she stepped down in March 2016. Agostini has spent over nine years with Amazon as a VP of sales.

Uber's big additions to the business team underscore how much the company has rapidly become the default for business rides and how serving those customers needing to deal with expense accounts has become more of a priority. According to a January 2017 study by Certify, Uber now accounts for the majority of the transportation market for business travelers in terms of volume of rides, surpassing taxis, rental cars, and its competitor Lyft.

While Lyft has scaled back its enterprise sales team to focus more on healthcare and government spending, Uber is doubling down on bringing corporations on board. More than 65,000 companies are already using Uber for Business to track employee spending on rides and manage corporate expenses, the company said.

The new additions to Uber's leadership come at a tricky time as many executives are departing the ride-hailing Goliath that's been rocked by scandals since the beginning of 2017. Most recently, Uber's president Jeff Jones quit after six months with the company, citing differences with the leadership at Uber. It's also currently undergoing a search for a new COO, and the company has said it will wait to fill many of the vacant senior leadership roles throughout the company until this person is chosen.

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