Dara Khosrowshahi
Dara Khosrowshahi (Persian: دارا خسروشاهی, Persian pronunciation: [dɑː'ɾɑːkhosɾo'ʃɑːhiː]; born May 28, 1969[1]) is an Iranian-American business executive who is the chief executive officer of Uber. He was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggregators. He is on the board of directors of BET.com and Hotels.com,[2] and previously served on the board of The New York Times Company.[3]
Dara Khosrowshahi
Early life and education[edit]
Khosrowshahi was born in 1969 in Iran into a prominent, wealthy family and grew up in a mansion on his family's compound.[4][5][6] He is the youngest of three children born to Lili and Asghar (Gary) Khosrowshahi.[4][7] His family founded the Alborz Investment Company, a diversified conglomerate involved in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, distribution, packaging, trading, and services.[8]
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.[9] Their company was later nationalized.[10] His family first fled to southern France.[4] They were planning to come back to Iran upon the political climate improving, but when that did not occur and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war started, they immigrated to the United States, eventually moving in with one of his uncles in Tarrytown, New York.[7][5] Khosrowshahi's mother had very little money to support her children, and having never worked before in Iran, began working full time to contribute towards her son's education.[11] In 1982, when Khosrowshahi was 13 years old, his father went to Iran to care for his grandfather.[9] The Iranian government subsequently barred his father from leaving the country for 6 years, thus Khosrowshahi spent his teenage years without seeing his father.[10][5]
In 1987, he graduated from the Hackley School, a private university-preparatory school in Tarrytown.[12] In 1991, he graduated with a B.S. in electrical and electronics engineering from Brown University, where he was a member of the social fraternity Sigma Chi.[13][14]
Political activity[edit]
Khosrowshahi is an outspoken critic of the immigration policy of Donald Trump.[18][5] In 2016, he donated to the Hillary Victory Fund, Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray, and the Democratic National Committee. He also donated to Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, a supporter of libertarianism.[29]
In November 2019, Khosrowshahi caused controversy in an interview with Axios on HBO when he compared the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi to the death of Elaine Herzberg by an Uber self-driving car in 2018. He called them both "mistakes" that can "be forgiven". The Saudi government is an investor in Uber and has representation on its board of directors.[30][31]
Personal life[edit]
Khosrowshahi has two children from a 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]both diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Khosrowshahi has appeared as a guest speaker for Autism Partnership Foundation.[32][33]
Kaveh Khosrowshahi, Dara's brother, is currently managing director at investment firm Allen & Company. Mehrad Khosrowshahi, Dara's other brother, is managing partner of the boutique consulting firm Confida Inc. Their uncle, Hassan Khosrowshahi, fled Iran due to the Iranian Revolution and is now a billionaire.[10] A cousin, Amir, co-founded Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2016 for $408 million. Another cousin, Golnar, founded Reservoir Media in 2007 as a music publishing company. The Khosrowshahis are also related to Darian Shirazi, founder of Radius Intelligence and the first intern hired by Facebook.[8]