Last Tuesday, under pressure from five of Uber’s major investors, company co-founder Travis Kalanick agreed to step down as CEO, reports The New York Times. The demand for Kalanick’s resignation was included in a letter titled “Moving Uber Forward” that was delivered to Kalanick in Chicago, said The Times. After consulting with a board member and investors, Kalanick agreed to leave his CEO position. He will, however, remain on the board of directors. Kalanick co-founded the innovative ridesharing service in 2009.

In a statement, Kalanick said, “I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life, I have accepted the investors’ request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight.”

While Uber has grown to become a $69 billion company in 615 cities worldwide under Kalanick’s leadership, it has also been overshadowed by one scandal after another. Here are a few of the scandals that have faced Uber this year alone.

• In January, Uber lifted surge pricing during a taxi protest at a New York airport against President Trump’s travel ban. This inspired the #DeleteUber movement which went viral, causing the company to lose hundreds of thousands of customers (numbers vary by source.)
• In February, Kalanick resigned from the president’s advisory council after customers threatened to boycott Uber.
• In a February 19, 2017 blog post, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler accused the company of sexual harassment and discrimination. On her first full day working for an Uber team, Fowler was propositioned by her manager. She reported the situation, and Uber failed to act.This was not an isolated incident for Fowler or other female employees, Fowler alleges.
• Alphabet-owned Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing its technology and trade secrets.
• Using a tool called Greyball, Uber collected data to identify and circumvent officials who attempted to deter or ban Uber from certain cities, reports The New York Times.
• In May, Uber admitted to underpaying drivers in New York City and agreed to pay them tens of millions of dollars. According to The Guardian, the average payout per driver will be about $900.
• In June 2017, Uber said it had fired more than 20 employee for sexual harassment, discrimination and inappropriate behavior, reports The New York Times.

A week before his resignation, Kalanick said he would take a leave of absence. The announcement came at the same time as the results of an independent, external investigation into the corporate culture were released, yielding 13 pages of recommendations which included changes to senior leadership. The investigation was led by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and his law firm Covington & Burling.

“Review and Reallocate the Responsibilities of Travis Kalanick: The Board should evaluate the extent to which some of the responsibilities that Mr. Kalanick has historically possessed should be shared or given outright to other members of senior management. The search for a Chief Operating Officer should address this concern to some extent,” reads the first recommendation.

The second recommendation was to identify a candidate for Chief Operating Officer who would focus on day-to-day operations, culture and institutions within Uber.

“Some of the skills and experiences the Board should look for in a COO include: candidates with backgrounds in diversity and inclusion and candidates who are themselves diverse; candidates with experience dealing with organizations that have complicated labor and operational structures; and candidates with experience in improving institutional culture.”

Accountability and oversight were also key themes among the recommendations.

Insider Take:

Uber may have been a key innovator in the ridesharing marketplace, but that doesn’t give the company the right to ignore best practices or laws that are in place to protect employees and to act lawfully and ethically in other aspects of its business. Uber has been in the spotlight for years with scandal after scandal, with things finally coming to a head this year. It is unfortunate, because the company has a creative business model that has helped transform consumer choice in transportation.

There are many things that Uber is doing right, including testing a subscription component, but it must get its house in order before things get completely out of control. The independent investigation led by Holder was a good starting point for reform, but it will require a strong leadership team, a true desire to change, and time before Uber will regain its credibility. Letting Kalanick stay on the board might not be the company’s best first step.