Story of the Week (DR):

The dangers of not pouring water over your dropped out campfire:

Travis Kalanick sees benefits of being in stealth mode for 8 years. ‘You build a culture of people that want to build and do not need to be famous’

While studying at UCLA, Kalanick was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. In 1998, he dropped out

Only people mentioned all former Uber bros:

CTO Brian Attwell: CloudKitchens CTO says he might add an IQ test for job applicants

Eric Meyhofer

Business Insider published details of a meeting at Uber in 2018 where CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and head of the self-driving unit Eric Meyhofer were questioned by employees: “Business Insider called ATG’s culture ‘toxic’ and referred to ‘missed warning signs,’ vast dysfunction’ and ‘rampant infighting.’ Any truth in this?”

Meyhofer then launched into a story about his kids. He told Uber employees that he knew culture was great under his leadership because his teenage kids wanted to visit the Uber campus while everyone was away over Thanksgiving break.

After hearing Meyhofer's defense, a handful of employees discussed him on the anonymous chat app Blind: "Eric Meyhofer: Based on his response at all hands on ATG culture, discuss his tenure as Head of ATG!" One hundred forty-one people voted to "replace him" and 28 voted to "keep him."

In 2019: Uber re-started testing driverless cars following an accident in which one person was killed: Meyhofer: "We've seen people bully these cars. They feel like they can be more aggressive because we won't take a position on it, or we'll allow it."

Strategic Partner Anthony Levandowski: charged by the Department of Justice for the alleged theft of trade secrets from Google's self-driving unit Waymo in 2019

Judge William Alsup sentenced him to 18 months in prison: "This is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen. This was not small. This was massive in scale.

President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Levandowski

Pardoned for Fraud, a CEO Mounts His Comeback: ‘We Can Trust You Now’

Trevor Milton’s conviction for defrauding investors in truck company Nikola was wiped away. He’s now raising funds for a new jet he claims will transform flying.

He later enrolled at Utah Valley University but dropped out after one semester

President Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Nikola founder Trevor Milton on March 27, 2025

"He has unveiled plans for a new small jet that he says will have the highest speed and range—and largest lavatory—in the light jet category. Investor documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal said the goal is for the plane to be the first light jet to focus on artificial-intelligence flight."

Delta CEO slams Washington over unpaid TSA agents, says front-line workers are being used as ‘political chips’

Top airline CEOs plead with Congress to restore DHS funding and pay airport workers. ‘Once again, air travel is the political football’

Between June 1, 2025, and March 16, 2026:

Southwest repurchased $2.6B in 2005; $400M in 2026

United $1.5B

5 NEOs: $91 million in 2025

Scott Kirby $34M; $97M in shares

Delta focused on $4.8B debt reduction

Frontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs, Airport Screeners): 50,000

$328M per month

Boards protected CEO bonuses as tariffs threatened business. Now, as Iran disrupts trade, CEOs may get more protection DR

Fortune: Amanda Gerut, West Coast editor

When Apple CEO Tim Cook and his executive team received their performance targets for fiscal 2025, the board set a modest bar for bonus payouts. The new targets, including sales and operating profit, did not require Apple’s leadership to expand the business—the board set goals at the same level or below the prior year’s results, citing “trade policy” and an “uncertain macroeconomic outlook.”

A broader trend in which boards “protect” CEO pay from external shocks (like tariffs) either by carving out those costs or by quietly lowering performance hurdles in advance

HP is highlighted: its board explicitly excluded tariff costs (net of tariff costs) from both annual and long‑term incentive calculations, which helped CEO Enrique Lores earn roughly two‑thirds of his target bonus

An exclusive analysis of pay data from 50 public companies by Compensation Advisory Partners (CAP) reveals how corporate boards across America use a range of techniques—more-conservative targets, widened performance curves, and flattened payout ranges—to protect CEO compensation from uncertainties like the chaos of President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs in 2025.

According to CAP’s findings, total pay for CEOs in 2025 rose 8% year-over-year, with annual bonus payouts up 4%.

Meanwhile, median financial performance was generally flat to up, with median revenue growing 2.9% and earnings per share down slightly at negative 1.6%.

Even among companies with the weakest payouts due to underperformance, CEOs still collected 87% of their target bonuses, up from 77% the year before.

The share of companies that landed in the lowest bonus payout tier was down, from 15% in 2024 to 9% in 2025.

Now, with the Iran conflict erupting weeks after most companies finalized their 2026 incentive goals—and global stock markets down roughly $3.5 trillion—some market observers expect that boards will soon be holding the same conversations again.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav set to receive up to $887 million if Paramount deal closes