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An Uber board member made a sexist joke in the middle of the presentation on how to fix Uber's sexist culture

Aug 26, 2024, 08:36 IST
Thomson ReutersDavid Bonderman, Founding Partner, TPG in 2014On Tuesday, Uber's board members took the stage to champion the message of how the beleaguered company was going to fix the problems with its sexist culture.

But one particular comment during the meeting made it clear that even the board has some work to do on how it deals with sexism in the workplace, and even among the board itself.

During the all-hands meeting, Arianna Huffington excitedly announced that Wan Ling Mortello was joining the board. Uber employees, in turn, appropriately applauded the news that women would go from 14% of Uber's board makeup to 25%.

That's when things became awkward, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Yahoo Finance.

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"There's a lot of data that shows when there's one woman on the board it's much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board," Huffington said.

"Actually, what it shows is that it's much more likely to be more talking," said David Bonderman, a director at TPG Capital and another board member.

Huffington laughed awkwardly - the rest of the room remained silent - before saying "Ohh come on David."

The next thirty minutes of the Uber all-hands meeting continued to address a 13-page report filled with 47 recommendations on how Uber could fix its own internal culture problems.

Bonderman later apologized for the "disrespectful remark" in a statement provided to Business Insider.

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"I want to apologize to my fellow board member for a disrespectful comment that was directed at her during today's discussion. It was inappropriate. I also want to apologize to all Uber employees who were offended by the remark. I deeply regret it."

You can listen to the full audio here - Bonderman's bad joke begins at 6:40.

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