Bozoma Saint John, former chief of consumer marketing for Apple Music, is now the chief brand officer of Uber. In the face of controversies has faced in the last few years, the stellar executive is serious about changing the image of Uber.
Rebranding tasks
Saint John has an incredible amount of rebranding tasks to as she jumps over to Uber's fence. Uber is infamous for getting involved in a lot of quagmires, from the organisational teething troubles down to the legal battles it faces. As to what she can offer on the table, Saint John admits there is nothing much since Uber is already a "magical product" and "people love to use it".
In an interview on Tuesday with Business Insider, Saint John underscores her new role in the ride-hailing company, saying "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. Having a real seat at the table to be able to do that is really important at this moment in time".
Just this year, Uber lost some 200,000 customers after deleting their apps in response to the company's actions during a taxi strike in New York pertaining to the travel ban President Donal Trump executed.
Before Uber
Saint John joined Apple a couple of months before it acquired Beats Music. She made a head-turning act at the Worldwide Developers Conference last year when rapping The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" as she climbed up onstage. Attendees from the press were smitten by her enthusiasm that Buzzfeed named her "the coolest person to ever go onstage at an Apple event".
Before joining Apple barely two years ago, Bozoma worked at Pepsi for nearly 10 years. In her extensive stint as the head of the company's music and entertainment marketing group, she was able to build a name for herself in music loop. One of her notable contributions for Pepsi is the popularity that the brand gained for backing music festivals and award shows, which led to the creation of the department itself.
