Former Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) director Jamie Heywood has been appointed as Uber’s new Northern and Eastern European boss.
Heywood is replacing former European chief Jo Bertram, who left the group after transport regulators removed Uber from London last year.
Amazon’s former director will join Uber and be responsible for the ride-sharing app in over 70 cities and 12 countries where the app is used by over 110,000 drivers and around eight million riders.
Many cities have had issues with the car-hailing group over issues including sexual assaults to the use of software to dodge regulators.
“I’m delighted that Jamie is joining Uber to lead our operations across Northern and Eastern Europe,” said the European chief Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty.
“His wide-range of international experience in both regulated industries and scaling fast-growing businesses will be invaluable for the next phase of Uber’s development.”
“Jamie’s leadership will also be crucial as we implement major changes across Europe including more safety features, improvements for drivers and a new approach to partnering with cities,” he added.
Heywood will take to his new role at the company later this month.
“I’m really looking forward to joining Uber at a time of exciting change and growth for the company,” he said.
Having been banned from London from a “lack of corporate responsibility”, the company will have a London licence appeal hearing on 25 June where a judge will decide if the group are able to continue operating in the capital.
The group recently acquired New York City-based e-bike startup, Jump Bikes in a deal estimated to be worth £100 million in cash and stock.
The CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in a blog post that the deal would help in his mission of “bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app—so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you’re going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more.”
