Uber's Chief Financial Officer to Leave Company

Brent Callinicos, the chief financial officer of Uber, plans to leave the ride-sharing company, in what will be one of the highest-level departures yet for the 6-year-old startup.

Callinicos' departure comes just two years after he joined Uber, according to an internal memo to employees obtained by The New York Times, where he helped the company expand from a young startup to span more than 53 countries.

"Brent has provided critical leadership to take Uber to the next level as we matured as a company," Travis Kalanick, Uber's chief executive, said in the memo. "We have financial systems in place overseeing operations in 53 countries. We have a deep bench of talent poised to help our finance organization grow with the business."

In a separate note to employees, Callinicos said he would depart to spend more time with his wife and daughter after spending more than two decades in financial positions at Microsoft, Google and Uber.

"I made a promise to both of them that I would be taking a long break at this stage of life," he said.

The move comes on the heels of a spree of fundraising activity for Uber, which lets users hail a car using a smartphone app. To date, Uber has raised more than $5 billion (roughly Rs. 31,411 crores) in financing from venture capitalists and larger financial institutions, and is valued at more than $40 billion.

It also comes amid a spate of chief financial officer retirements at some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley over the past year. This month, Patrick Pichette, Google's CFO, announced his plans to step down to spend time with his family. Last year, Apple and Amazon's chief financial officers announced their retirement plans as well.

But perhaps most important, Callinicos' departure comes shortly after Uber arranged a private sale of convertible debt, managed by Goldman Sachs. The terms of this offering, as described by people briefed on the matter, give Uber an incentive to go public within the next few years. The securities being offered to Goldman's clients can be converted into stock - at a discount of roughly 20 to 30 percent of Uber's valuation in an initial stock offering.

Uber did not say it was in the process of searching for a successor to Callinicos in the internal memos, though Kalanick said Callinicos would remain a close adviser to the company and Gautam Gupta, a colleague of Callinicos, will become Uber's acting head of finance.

News of Callinicos' departure was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

© 2015 New York Times News Service