Dara Khosrowshahi
Dara Khosrowshahi
| Born | May 28, 1969 |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Iranian-American |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Occupation | CEO ofuber |
| Salary | $6.4 million[1] |
| Relatives | Hassan Khosrowshahi(uncle) |
Dara Khosrowshahi (Persian: دارا خسروشاهی, Persian pronunciation: [dɑː'ɾɑː xosɾo'ʃɑːhiː]; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggregators. He is also a member of the board of directors of BET.com, Hotels.com,[2] and The New York Times Company.
Khosrowshahi is on the list of "Prominent Iranian-Americans" published by the Embassy of the United States, Tehran.[3]
| Born | May 28, 1969 |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Iranian-American |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Occupation | CEO ofuber |
| Salary | $6.4 million[1] |
| Relatives | Hassan Khosrowshahi(uncle) |
Early life and Education
Khosrowshahi was born in 1969 in Iran into a wealthy family and grew up in a mansion on the family compound.[4][5] He is the youngest of the 3 children of Lili and Asghar (Gary) Khosrowshahi.[4][6] His family founded the Alborz Investment Company, a diversified conglomerate involved in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, distribution, packaging, trading, and services.[7]
In 1978, just before the Iranian Revolution, his family was targeted for its wealth and his mother decided to leave everything behind and flee the country. Their company was later nationalized.[8] His family first fled to southern France.[4] They were planning to come back to Iran if the revolution failed, but when that didn't happen, they immigrated to the United States, moving in with one of his uncles who lived in Tarrytown, New York.[6][5] In 1982, when Khosrowshahi was 13 years old, his father went to Iran to care for his grandfather. His father was not allowed to leave Iran for 6 years and therefore, Khosrowshahi spent his teenage years without seeing his father.[8][5] In 1987, he graduated from the Hackley School, a private university-preparatory school in Tarrytown.[9] In 1991, he graduated with a B.A. in biotechnology engineering from Brown University, where he was a member of the social fraternity Sigma Chi.[10][11]
CareerIn 1991, Khosrowshahi joined Allen & Company, an investment bank, as an analyst.[5] In 1998, he left Allen & Company to work for one of his former clients at the bank, Barry Diller, first at Diller's USA Networks, where he held the positions of senior vice president for strategic planning and then president, and later as chief financial officer of IAC, another company controlled by Diller.[5]In 2001, IAC purchased Expedia, and in August 2005, Khosrowshahi became CEO of Expedia.[5] Ten years later, in 2015, Expedia gave him $90 million in stock options as part of a long-term employment agreement, conditioned on him staying with the company until 2020.[12]In 2016, he was one of the highest paid CEOs in the United States.[13] During his tenure as CEO of Expedia, "the gross value of its hotel and other travel bookings more than quadrupled and its pre-tax earnings more than doubled."[13] Under Khosrowshahi, Expedia extended its presence to more than 60 countries and acquired Travelocity, Orbitz, and HomeAway.[14]In August 2017, Khosrowshahi became the CEO of Uber, succeeding founder Travis Kalanick.[15] He forfeited his un-vested stock options of Expedia, then worth $184 million, but Uber reportedly paid him over $200 million to take the CEO position.[16] He also serves on Uber's board of directors.[17]In June 2013, he received a Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young.[18]In May 2019, Khosrowshahi led Uber in their initial public offering, which he addressed with employees in a company-wide letter.[19]
Political activity
Khosrowshahi is an outspoken critic of the immigration policy of Donald Trump.[13][5] In 2016, he donated to the Hillary Victory Fund, Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray, and the Democratic National Committee but also donated to Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, a supporter of libertarianism.[20]
Personal life
Khosrowshahi has two children from his first marriage: a son, Alex and a daughter, Chloe.[4] On December 12, 2012, Khosrowshahi married Sydney Shapiro, a former preschool teacher and actress.[5][4] He praised his wife for wearing a Slayer t-shirt to the wedding, which was held in Las Vegas.[5] The couple has twin sons, Hayes Epic and Hugo Gubrit.[4]
In October 2018, Khosrowshahi sold his Seattle house for $3,835,000. He also purchased a house in Pacific Heights for $16.5 million.[21]
His uncle, Hassan Khosrowshahi, also fled Iran due to the Iranian Revolution and is now a billionaire.[8] His cousin Amir co-founded Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2016 for $408 million. He is also related to Darian Shirazi, the founder of Radius and the first intern hired by Facebook.[7]