Plouffe will be one of the top few executives at the booming transportation disruptor. Plouffe joins Uber

David Plouffe, the former campaign manager and White House adviser to President Barack Obama, is taking his political secret sauce to Uber late next month as senior vice president of policy and strategy, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday.

Kalanick said from the ride-matching company’s headquarters in San Francisco that Uber “is trying to win hearts and minds,” adding: “There’s an incumbent … the big-taxi cartel … and we’re the challenger.”


Plouffe, 47, will be one of the top few executives at the booming transportation disruptor, in charge of global branding, communications and policy – as Kalanick put it, Uber’s “campaign manager.”

“City Councils are voting on Uber all the time, and we have state legislatures voting on us, on the regular,” Kalanick said. “And there are even some referendums.”

Plouffe will commute for now but will move to San Francisco with his wife, Olivia Morgan, and their two children in summer 2015. Plouffe, who has been advising major technology and communications companies since leaving the West Wing after Obama’s reelection, said in an interview that the new job is analogous to his role as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and then White House senior adviser.

“We’ll be trying to change the point of view of established politicians, and there’s a lot of resistance coming from people who want to protect the status quo,” Plouffe said, adding that he’ll be working with a lot of young people and “helping see the light about progress and change.”

The matchmaker was Jim Messina, who was manager of Obama’s 2012 campaign. Messina was introduced to Kalanick by Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman. The Uber CEO will attend Messina’s wedding in Montana later this month.

Messina said in an interview: “It’s the perfect marriage: You have the smartest strategist I have ever met, with one of the most innovative companies in America.”

Schmidt said in a statement: “I’ve worked closely with David, and believe this is a game-changer for Uber. David is uniquely suited to scale and lead the same kind of insurgent campaign he did in 2008 for a Silicon Valley tech company, bridging the worlds of business and politics.”

The Uber job was among the most coveted open slots in corporate America. The company interviewed a who’s who of D.C. operatives, including Robert Gibbs, Plouffe’s former campaign and White House colleague.

Plouffe will remain involved with planning Obama’s presidential library.

His departure from Washington leaves a hole at the top of the Democratic Party’s strategic ranks, with Messina as this town’s senior remaining bridge between Obama’s political machine and the expected Hillary Clinton campaign.

In a blog post, Kalanick said he “needed someone who understood politics but who also had the strategic horsepower to reinvent how a campaign should be run – a campaign for a global company operating in cities from Boston and Beijing to London and Lagos.”

The CEO wrote that Plouffe will help in “shepherding us well beyond the challenges of the Taxi cartel, and into the brave new world of software-powered transportation.”

Among those reacting to the selection:

• Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick: “David Plouffe and Uber are a natural match. From my insurgent campaign in 2006 and since, David has shown an interest in and an appetite for challenging established ways — and winning. As we have seen in Boston, one of its first cities, so has Uber.”

• Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper: “In Colorado, we embrace innovation and disruptive technology. We push to be in the vanguard. Colorado has led the way on innovative transportation options like Uber. Having worked closely with David, I know he brings the same progressive approach.”

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: “David is as smart and strategic as they come in politics. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, his presence is immediately felt.”