Google’s communications and public policy chief will leave the Web portal giant next month for the taxi app Uber.
Rachel Whetstone will take over as senior vice president of policy and communications at Uber, which is expected to go public this year and whose value is estimated at up to US$50 billion. The Briton will take over from David Plouffe, who was promoted to chief adviser to the company and CEO Travis Kalanick.
Whetstone had assumed her position at Google in 2008, and was one of three female executives in the upper echelon of management.
Uber has recently drawn the ire of regulators, taxi drivers in cities and countries worldwide who are against the app’s rising popularity.
Forbes called Whetstone’s loss a serious blow to Google, adding that the Web portal and Uber are becoming fierce rivals after having worked together previously. A Bloomberg report in February also said Google had started development of its own taxi-calling app.
Whetstone’s husband is Steve Hilton, who served as senior adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron until 2012 and now heads the tech startup Crowdpac.
By D. Peter Kim
