Lyft CEO Logan Green leaves post

  • After almost 11 years in the position
  • Praise and thanks for Green
  • David Risher taking over
  • Green will remain as Chair of the Board at Lyft
  • Green spoke at length and said 139 words

(exechange) — San Francisco, California, March 27, 2023 — Logan Green, chief executive of Lyft, leaves his position. As announced by Lyft Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, March 27, 2023, Logan Green leaves his post as chief executive officer at the ride-hailing company, after almost 11 years in the role, effective April 17, 2023.

The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 8.1 years. Around 29% of departing CEOs left their posts after more than 10 years. This is according to data collected by CEO-exit research firm exechange.

exechange tracks CEO departures at the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., examines the reasons CEOs leave and determines the Push‑out Score™, a measure of pressure on departing chief executives on a scale of 0 to 10.

Logan Green’s duties as CEO will be taken over by David Risher, a former head of product and head of U.S. retail at Amazon.com, Inc.

Already a director

Risher has already been a member of the board of directors of Lyft. Generally speaking, most director-turned-CEO appointments occur following a sudden resignation of the outgoing CEO and signal a lack of preparedness on the company’s part to groom internal talent. Directors-turned-executives represent a blend of outsider and insider.

They don’t have the constraints of a pure insider when it comes to leading painful changes or making unpopular decisions, and they have more company knowledge than a pure outsider.

Having been a director, Risher understands the expectations and dynamics of the board and has knowledge of Lyft’s organization, risk-management practices and strategy.

Logan Green’s move coincides with a management shake-up also involving the positions of President; and Executive Vice President, Head of Rideshare.

“The right moment to step back”

The management change is explained as follows. Green stated: “All founders eventually find the right moment to step back and the right leaders to take their company forward. In a field of accomplished candidates, David stood head and shoulders above the rest.”

The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (27.9% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.6%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (9.7%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.6% of cases), personal reasons (3.8%) and conduct issues (2.2%). Rather rarely stated reasons are health problems (1.6% of cases), disagreement (1.3%), death (1.3%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%) and career change (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 28.5% of cases, no reason was given.

Green will remain as Chair of the Board at Lyft

Lyft stated: “[T]he company’s co-founders, Logan Green (chief executive officer) and John Zimmer (president) have decided to transition from their full-time executive management positions into non-executive roles as chair and vice chair of the Lyft board, effective April 17, 2023 and June 30, 2023, respectively.”

“Transition”

Lyft said: “Logan Green, its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), has decided to transition from his role as CEO, effective as of April 17, 2023, and John Zimmer, its co-founder and President, has decided to transition from his role as President, effective as of June 30, 2023.”

Share price decline since March 2021

The announcement follows a decline in Lyft Inc.’s share price of 83% since March 2021.

In the position of CEO since 2012

Logan Green became CEO of the Company in 2012.

Green is a co-founder of Lyft and has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s board of directors since the Company’s founding.

Prior to co-founding Lyft, Green created the first car-share program at the University of California, Santa Barbara and served on the Board of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District.

Green currently serves as a member of the board of directors of eBay Inc., an online marketplace and payments company.

Green holds a B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

139 words by Logan Green

In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Lyft Inc., Logan Green received praise and thanks.

In announcing the leadership change, Logan Green spoke at length and said 139 words.

“David stood head and shoulders above the rest”

Logan Green stated: “Building Lyft with John over the last 16 years has been the adventure of a lifetime. Billions of rides later, our industry is defined by the model of ridesharing that Lyft pioneered. All founders eventually find the right moment to step back and the right leaders to take their company forward. In a field of accomplished candidates, David stood head and shoulders above the rest. As a member of the board, he knows both the challenges and opportunities ahead. David has the right energy, ambition, and experience to lead Lyft into the future. Leaders in our industry who worked with David affirmed that he’s a customer-obsessed leader who drives hard – when David left Amazon, Jeff Bezos publicly thanked him, vowing to ‘build on the foundation you helped pour.’ David is the absolute right person to build on our foundation.”

Over the past 12 months, 25% of all outgoing CEOs remained silent in the departure announcement, according to data compiled by exechange. Departing CEOs who did make a statement said an average of 109 words. The longest statement was 510 words. The shortest statement was 23 words. Leadership transitions in which departing CEOs provide conspicuously short, excessively long or no explanations for their move are statistically associated with elevated pressure and show an increased incidence of Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5.

39% of CEOs are forced out or fired

When CEO departures are announced, exechange determines the Push-out Score on a scale of 0 to 10 to assess how likely it is that the chief executive was pushed out or felt pressure to leave the position, with 0 being most likely a voluntary move and 10 being most likely a forced exit. Anything over a 5 indicates that there are valid reasons to believe an executive may have been pushed out.

Of the 319 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (March 27, 2022, to March 26, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 6.1, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When performance issues, time with family or personal reasons were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.

Around 39% of the CEO departure events from the past 12 months received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher.

In other words, in the past 12 months, three in eight departing CEOs were forced out or fired.

Push-out Score for Logan Green’s move determined

The Push-out Score regarding Logan Green’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.

Read the full story in the exechange report 14.2023 ($).