Lyft Appoints Former Amazon and Microsoft Exec David Risher CEO as Founders Step Back

Locked in competition with Uber, which controls roughly 74% of the U.S. rideshare market, Lyft is changing leadership by appointing a new CEO as the company faces a difficult ride from a distant No. 2.

In a Monday (March 27) blog post, Lyft confirmed that “co-founders Logan Green (chief executive officer) and John Zimmer (president) have decided to transition from their full-time executive management positions into non-executive roles as chair and vice chair of the Lyft board, effective April 17, 2023, and June 30, 2023, respectively.”

Taking the wheel as Lyft’s new CEO is former Amazon and Microsoft executive David Risher, who was Amazon’s 37th employee. There is still a letter from Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos posted on Amazon commemorating Risher’s early contributions to the marketplace.

In the Lyft statement, Risher said, “When the search committee asked me to consider this role, at first I was gobsmacked, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the competitive spirit I learned at Microsoft, the customer obsession I learned at Amazon, and the do-more-with-less lessons I learned leading Worldreader are exactly what Lyft needs right now. I am honored to step into the CEO role at such an important moment in the company’s history, and am prepared to take this business to new levels of success.”

Worldreader is the nonprofit Risher formed in 2009 to confront a literacy crisis among children globally, encouraging kids to read using its BookSmart online reader and multilingual library.

On the news, The Wall Street Journal reported, “Lyft hasn’t reported an annual profit since its inception in 2012, but it has been trimming its losses. Last month, the company announced a weaker-than-expected revenue outlook for the current quarter. Late last year, Lyft laid off more than 700 employees or 13% of staff and scaled back on other businesses, such as renting cars to customers, as it looked to weather a possible recession. Its stock has tumbled over 70% in the past 12 months. Uber’s shares have fallen around 10% over that period.”

In the blog post, current Lyft board chair, Sean Aggarwal, who is transitioning to the role of lead independent director under the leadership changes, said “David is a legendary tech visionary with a well-deserved reputation as a relentless operator. David knows Lyft’s strengths and weaknesses, and he has a clear vision for the future of Lyft. I know he will capitalize on the significant opportunities we have for long-term profitable growth.”

The WSJ reporting noted “One of the decisions that Mr. Green said he would reconsider was limiting Lyft’s business to North America. Uber spent its early years expanding overseas, from where it now gets about 40% of its revenue.”

Green told WSJ there is “still a lot of upside and a lot of room” for international expansion.