Uber Conducts Press Call, Reports Growth Amidst Plans to Change Company Culture; Board Member Arianna Huffington Leads All-Female Cast In Defending CEO Travis Kalanick

On Tuesday, Uber held a special press call led by board member Arianna Huffington along with the company’s highest-ranking female staff: North American operations lead Rachel Holt, Chief HR officer Liane Hornsey and company communications lead Rachel Whetstone.

TechCrunch reported that Huffington lead the press call, and stressed that embattled Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is committed to accept “responsibility for the current state of Uber’s culture, and also responsibility for the transformation Uber is currently pursuing as a result.” Although Kalanick’s absence was obvious during the press call, Holt told reporters that the CEO is “busy” looking for the company’s next chief operating officer.

“It’s clear that both Uber and the ride-sharing industry would not be where we are today without Travis… I’m personally a big believer in people, leaders, companies being allowed to evolve… The board is confident in Travis and we are proceeding ahead with a search for the COO. It’s not something that’s been addressed because it hasn’t come up and we don’t expect it to come up,” she later added.

In a bid to appease investors, Holt said the company is experiencing growth despite the huge management shakeup and accusations of sexism in the workplace. Although she failed to disclose numbers, Holt said the growth was due to new user acquisitions in both riders and drivers, Fortune said. She said, “In fact, in our most mature country, we’ve grown faster in the first 10 weeks of 2017 than in the first 10 weeks of 2016. Looking at less-mature regions, trips were up 600% in February, year on year.”