Uber Taps Target Exec For President

Uber is getting a president, CEO Travis Kalanick is getting a deputy to oversee his firm’s operations and Target is losing a marketing executive.

Specifically, Target is losing Jeffery Jones — he will join Uber as president and take the helm on marketing and customer support around the world. He will also act as an advisor, particularly relating to acquisitions and a potential IPO in the future.

Target has employed Jones as its CMO for the last four years. He will be relieving Ryan Graves, Uber’s former CEO and director. Graves will refocus his efforts on experimental offerings from Uber — particularly food delivery.”

“Ryan is the progenitor of everything Uber Operations — setting the gold standard,” Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and CEO, wrote in a blog post. “But as we grow, marketing is becoming more and more of a thing, and it was clear we needed a real infusion of talent on that front. So we went big.”

Jones will officially depart from Target on September 9th. He came to Target via the Gap, where he was also CMO. His area of focus at Target had been broadening the retailer’s base — particularly to include more millennial and Hispanic shoppers.

Mr. Jones “modernized Target’s marketing” and evolved the company’s “capabilities to center on the important role digital plays in their lives,” according to Target CEO Brian Cornell.