One-on-one with 'Boz' Saint John, the woman hired to save Uber

TORONTO (KGO) -- Bozoma Saint John made headlines in 2017 when she was appointed as the first-ever chief brand officer at Uber. It was a time of crisis and tumult at the ride-sharing company.

A series of scandals eventually led to the ouster of Uber's founder, Travis Kalanick. The high-profile hire had the New York Times asking: "Is this the woman to save Uber?"

After a year, she left Uber to take on her current role, chief marketing officer at behemoth talent agency, Endeavor.
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A regular keynote speaker at leadership events all over the world, ABC7 spoke to "Boz," as she's known to her 215,000 Instagram followers at the #MOVETHEDIAL summit in Toronto in November. The summit gathers leaders from all over the world to champion diversity in the technology sector.

"The future of everything is technology and, in order to ensure we are designing solutions for everyone, we have to have everyone represented in our design, leadership and governance table," said #MOVETHEDIAL movement founder Jodi Kovitz.
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The second annual summit saw leaders form the world's biggest tech companies -- including Google, eBay and Microsoft -- take the stage to talk solutions about building diverse teams within the tech industry.

The organization recently released a playbook for retaining women in tech.



Backstage, Saint John and ABC7's Kris Reyes talked about her early days in the corporate world, why being an outsider served her career, including crisis management at Uber and the lessons she has for first-generation leaders.