Uber appoints Amazon guruJamie Heywood as regional manager of northern and eastern Europe
Uber has poached Amazon’s director of electronics as its new regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe as the management shakeups continue.
Jamie Heywood will join Uber next month to take on the role that covers its operations in more than 70 cities and 12 countries, including the UK.
The role was previously held by Jo Bertram, who was poached by Telefonica in March.
As well as heading up the electronics division at Amazon, Heywood was also the director of Virgin Mobile and the deputy CEO of Virgin Mobile in India.
He was also CEO of Virgin Mobile in China for three years and started his career in Asia working for the Swire Group.
Vice president and regional general manager of Uber in Europe, the Middle East & Africa Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty said: “I’m delighted that Jamie is joining Uber to lead our operations across northern and eastern Europe. His wide-range of international experience in both regulated industries and scaling fast-growing businesses will be invaluable for the next phase of Uber’s development. Jamie’s leadership will also be crucial as we implement major changes across Europe including more safety features, improvements for drivers and a new approach to partnering with cities.”
Heywood added: “I’m really looking forward to joining Uber at a time of exciting change and growth for the company. Uber is one of those rare brands which is changing how each of us gets around as it becomes a real alternative to private car ownership. Every day millions of riders and drivers in this region rely on the Uber app and I can’t wait to get started.”
Earlier in April Uber appointed former travel head of Acromas Susan Hooper and media entrepreneur Roger Parry as non-executive directors to its UK boards.
Hooper, who currently holds a number of non-executive roles on the boards of Wizz Air, the Department for Exiting the European Union, the Rank Group and Affinity Water, was previously the chief executive of the travel division at Acromas Group, where she oversaw businesses including Saga Travel, Titan Holidays and the AA travel division.
Parry is former BBC and ITV broadcaster and former owner of LBC and Jazz FM radio stations. he is currently also the chairman of marketing firm MSQ Partners, software company Oxford Metrics polling specialist YouGov.
The management shakeups come as Uber embarks on an image transformation following its high-profile spat with Transport for London (TfL) over its licence.
Read more: Uber appoints two new non-executive directors in board shakeup