We’re pleased to announce today the appointment of Jamie Heywood as Uber’s new Regional General Manager for Northern and Eastern Europe.

The role covers our rides business in more than 70 cities and 12 countries including the UK. Across Northern and Eastern Europe, Uber serves more than 110,000 drivers and around 8 million active riders.

Jamie will join Uber next month from Amazon, where he was most recently Director of their Electronics division in the UK responsible for both the Retail and Marketplace businesses.

Before joining Amazon in 2014, Jamie spent 15 years in telecoms, where he was Managing Director of Virgin Mobile in the UK (2011-14) and launched Virgin Mobile in India and Orange in Thailand.

He was also CEO of Virgin Mobile in China for three years and started his career in Asia working for the Swire Group.

Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Vice President and Regional General Manager of Uber in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, said:

“I’m delighted that Jamie is joining Uber to lead our operations across Northern and Eastern Europe. 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.”

Jamie Heywood said:

“I’m really looking forward to joining Uber at a time of exciting change and growth for the company. Uber is one of those rare brands which is changing how each of us gets around as it becomes a real alternative to private car ownership. Every day millions of riders and drivers in this region rely on the Uber app and I can’t wait to get started.”

Our existing country General Managers – Tom Elvidge (UK & Ireland), Niek van Leeuwen (Nordics, Baltics & Benelux) and Alexei Stakh (Central & Eastern Europe) – continue to have day-to-day operational responsibility for our rides business in their countries and will report into Jamie. The UK Board, chaired by Laurel Powers-Freeling and including Roger Parry and Susan Hooper in non-executive director roles, will also continue to oversee the licensed rides business in the UK.