Diversity: Former Obama advisor joins Lyft board, Uber hire super talented Bozoma Saint John as Chief Brand Officer

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Valerie Jarrett, who was formerly a Senior Advisor to President Obama, is joining Lyft’s board, the company announced today.

It is not the first time that a major tech company has brought on someone from the political world to help take on regulators. Another former Senior Advisor to President Obama, David Plouffe, worked at Uber from 2014 until earlier this year.

The board already includes Lyft’s co-founders, kick ass VC’S Ben Horowitz and Scott Weiss from Andreessen Horowitz, Ann Miura-Ko PHD from Floodgate, Daniel Amman from General Motors, Manu Kumar from K9 ventures and Jonathan Christodoro from Enzon. Lyft believes that Jarrett, who previously chaired the Chicago Transit Board, “brings experience tackling the problems and opportunities related to urban transportation.”

While competitor Uber has come under fire for its cultural problems and lacks a CEO, Lyft has carried forward full speed ahead, actually benefiting from the uncertainty and executive upheaval at Uber.

Uber have recently improved the diversity on their executive team and appointed exceptionally talented and experienced Bozoma Saint John as Chief Brand Officer. Bozoma was formerly in senior roles with PepsiCo and Apple.

Great to see to titan players in the tech world adding more diversity at the top!

Lyft also tells us that in 2017, it has already completed more rides than in all of 2016. They recently raised $600 million in capital at a $7.5 billion valuation and have now raised over $2.6 billion to date.

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