The resignation comes in the midst of an investigation into the culture of racial discrimination at the company.
Uber Chief People Officer Liane Hornsey resigned in an email to staff on Tuesday following an investigation into how she handled allegations of racial discrimination at the ride-hailing firm.
The resignation came after Reuters contacted Uber on Monday about allegations from anonymous whistle-blowers that she had systematically dismissed internal complaints of racial discrimination. According to the Reuters report, Hornsey acknowledged in a separate email to her team at Uber that her exit "comes a little out of the blue for some of you, but I have been thinking about this for a while."
She also gave no reason for her resignation and has not responded to requests for comment about the investigation.
The news site also reported that Hornsey had allegedly used discriminatory language and made derogatory comments about Uber Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Bernard Coleman, and had denigrated and threatened former Uber executive Bozoma Saint John, who left the company in June.
Hornsey, who had been in the role for about 18 months, was the head of Uber's human resources department and one of the firm's top spokespeople on diversity and discrimination issues. Pranesh Anthapur, Uber's vice president of human resources, will replace Hornsey on an interim basis.
This is not the first time that Uber’s alleged culture of racism has put the company in the spotlight. Last year, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Washington found that Uber Drivers in Boston cancelled rides for men with black-sounding names more than twice as often as for other men. Meanwhile, black people in Seattle using the Uber and Lyft, another ride-hailing app, were found to face notably longer wait times to get paired with drivers than white customers.
