GE's Immelt is said to be on Uber CEO's list

He is on a narrowing list of candidates to take over after founder Travis Kalanick's exit

Jeffrey Immelt, the outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) at General Electric (GE), is on a narrowing list of candidates to take over as head of Uber Technologies, two people familiar with the matter said.

There are fewer than six names on the ride-hailing company’s shortlist, Uber’s head of human resources told employees on Tuesday. Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), is another person who had been under consideration for the CEO job, people familiar with the matter said this week.

Whitman publicly withdrew her name from consideration on Thursday night, saying via Twitter that she won’t be Uber’s CEO. “We have a lot of work still to do at HPE,” she wrote. Uber and GE declined to comment.

Uber is searching for seasoned executives to fill the leadership vacuum left by last month’s departure of co-founder Travis Kalanick and restore confidence in the business after months of controversy. Kalanick was ousted under pressure from some of the company’s major investors.

Immelt, 61, said last month he was stepping down as chairman and CEO of GE after a tumultuous 16-year tenure. John Flannery, a 30-year company veteran who oversees the health unit, will become CEO of the manufacturing giant.

Uber’s board is meeting Thursday, though a decision on the next CEO is not expected, one of the people said. The San Francisco-based company hopes to name a CEO by early September.

Bloomberg