Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber Highlight

As chief technology officer of Uber, Pham was responsible for the entire engineering corps inside of Uber, a sprawling organization of hundreds of brilliant young hackers. Pham’s team looked up to him; a disciplined executive with dark hair, bronzed skin, and square, gunmetal-colored glasses that cut a sharp contrast to his smile. To many of his engineers, he was a rare breed of CTO: empathetic to his staff and even emotional when dealing with tough company issues. His workers repaid him with their loyalty. Most of all, they respected his work ethic, especially his ability to respond to subordinates’ emails at all hours of the day. Even when he took a vacation, Pham had his laptop open at the airport, answering emails on the runway up until the moment the flight attendant told him it was time to stow his electronic devices.