Bozoma Saint John, formerly the head of Global Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, on Tuesday announced she is joining Uber as its new "chief brand officer."

"Quite frankly, what has happened in the past is nothing that I can control, but I do think there is a real opportunity for the future of Uber and what the vision is going to be," Saint John told Business Insider on Tuesday. "Having a real seat at the table to be able to do that is really important at this moment in time."

An immediate goal will be "changing the image of Uber and crafting what that brand story is," she added. "That hasn't been done yet."

Uber has suffered particularly bad publicity in 2017, linked to gaffes like operating during a taxi strike against President Trump's travel ban, using apps meant to undermine Lyft and avoid law enforcement, and the violation of App Store rules. It's on the defensive in a self-driving technology lawsuit by Waymo, and earlier today it reportedly fired 20 workers after an internal probe on harassment problems.

People have also long criticized Uber — and many other ridesharing services — for failing to pay people decent wages, or accept the same level of scrutiny as regular taxi companies.