Uber's South Asia policy chief quits in latest senior departure: sources

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Uber’s [UBER.UL] chief of policy for India and South Asia has quit, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, in the latest high-level departure at the online taxi company.

Shweta Rajpal Kohli, a former Indian journalist who joined Uber last year, would join cloud-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc next month, the sources told Reuters.

Uber said it did not have an immediate comment. Kohli did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Kohli was mostly tasked with building Uber’s relations with regulators and government officials in India, a market where the firm has faced several regulatory and reputational hurdles.

One source said Kohli “was leading government engagements in the influential circles, so her exit is a step back for Uber.”

The sources asked not to be identified as the details were not public yet.

Uber was briefly banned in New Delhi after one of its drivers raped a woman passenger in 2014.

Uber hired a law firm this year to investigate how the firm managed to obtain the medical records of the rape victim, an incident that led to criticism of the culture at the U.S. firm, sources told Reuters in June. Uber declined to comment.

Kohli is the latest senior executive to leave Uber. The firm’s European policy chief quit in October, shortly after the departure of Uber’s top boss in Britain.

Uber has suffered a tumultuous few months which has seen former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick forced out after a series of boardroom controversies and other regulatory battles in multiple U.S. states and around the world.

Uber counts India as its second-biggest market after the United States. It operates in about 30 Indian cities and competes with Ola, a ride hailing service backed by Japan’s Softbank.

Uber said on Monday it had agreed with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group on a potential investment.