How Uber drove from Immelt to Whitman before stopping for Khosrowshahi

Khosrowshahi continued to present himself as a low-key and steady hand

By last Friday afternoon, most of Uber’s eight directors had gathered in San Francisco for a board meeting. Their agenda was simple: Pick a new chief executive for the ride-hailing company. What unfolded over the next 72 hours was anything but straightforward.

In discussions at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown and at the offices of the private equity firm TPG Capital, which holds an Uber board seat, directors operated under the cloak of secrecy. They spoke in a kind of code about some of the candidates, limiting knowledge of the shortlist to a handful of people.

By Sunday morning, one of the