Uber Taps Former Goldman Exec Sarah-Marie Martin to Head M&A, Capital Markets

Uber has asked Sarah-Marie Martin, 48, an ex-Goldman Sachs banker, to be the head of its mergers and capital-markets group, Bloomberg writes.

She’ll be a senior executive in the corporate finance an capital markets group.

Martin is a 25-year veteran of Wall Street. She’s worked for five years at Goldman, covering alternative investment firms and private equity clients.

Martin also had a brief time working as chief financial officer for Yumi, a baby food maker.

Noah Edwardsen, a spokesman for the ride-hailing company, said Uber was thrilled to have Martin on board.

Uber has been heavily funding Uber Eats for the last few years as the pandemic forced ride-hailing to come to a screeching halt. But at the same time, the company saw opportunities in the rise of grocery and food delivery demand that the pandemic caused.

Uber bought fellow delivery company Postmates, which helped it to get an advantage over rival DoorDash. Uber also added alcohol delivery when it bought Drizly for $1.1 billion.

PYMNTS wrote that the connected economy has seen more growth in the past few years, with users, subscribers and revenues all seeing an uptick.

See also: Uber’s Strategic Shift Signals Investors Want Sustainability in the Connected Economy

The shift has led to somewhat elusive profits, with efforts to build for the future and grow in scale leading to cash burn.

Strategic shifts have been happening, though, as investors look for changes in how companies working in these verticals approach the market.

Uber, according to the report, has seen a new focus on free cash flow – a freer way to look at operating efficiency.

That will come with more strict measures of operating efficiency after real cash costs from running a business.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, said he’d spent “several days” after earnings talking with investors in New York and Boston.

“It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly,” he said.