Who Will Be Uber’s Next CEO? The Search Is On Following Travis Kalanick's Departure

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down Wednesday amid a cloud of scandal and the ride-hailing app and industry disruptor is looking for its next leader.

Bart Friedman, a corporate governance expert and senior counsel at law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that two potential options for the role are Uber board member Arianna Huffington and dark horse candidate and board Chairman Garret Camp, who co-founded the company.

READ: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Resigns Under Pressure From Investors

“(Camp) may not demonstrate sufficient change for investors, who will really be calling the shots,” Friedman told the Journal. “The investors are going to be looking for not only someone who is transformative but a big public-relations success.”

Last week Kalanick announced he was taking a leave of absence from Uber on the same day the company released a 13-page report of recommendations the company can take to improve its workplace environment. It was conducted by former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm Covington and Burling. Uber’s board voted unanimously to accept all recommendations. One of those recommendations was to bring in a chief operating officer (COO) following an exodus of executives. The search for that role turned out some lukewarm candidates who might now be a lot more interested in the chief executive role.

Thomas Staggs, former COO at Disney was being considered for the same role at Uber, but might now be part of the CEO search, according to Recode Wednesday. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was in consideration for the COO job and might now be part of the search for chief executive.

Internal candidates such as Jeff Holden, the company’s chief product officer or Jason Droege, head of the company’s UberEveryting division are potential choices Quartz reported Wednesday.

According to the New York Post Wednesday, the board wants to go after Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg. The Post said the move was being pushed by Huffington.

Despite the choice of leader, Kalanick will remain a part of Uber’s board.

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” said Kalanick in a statement obtained by The Hill Wednesday.

The toxic environment at Uber which included repeated claims of sexual harassment became a firestorm when a former employee wrote a blog post detailing how she was treated at Uber, prompting others to come forward.

“It was clear that (my manager) was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR,” Susan Fowler, a former engineer at the company wrote on her blog.

She continued, “When I reported the situation, I was told by both HR and upper management that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this man's first offense and that they wouldn't feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to. Upper management told me that he 'was a high performer' (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part.”

She later detailed that she saw the number of women at the company dwindle while she was there and said that other women she spoke to had experienced similar harassment.

READ: Uber Apologizes To NYC Riders, Former Employee Claiming That 'It's All A Show'

The recommendations the company published last week stated, “Uber should consider adopting a zero-tolerance policy for substantiated complaints of discrimination and harassment, without regard to whether an employee is a 'high performer' or a long-term employee.”

Uber did not immediately respond to requests for comment.