Delaware native, Obama vet Plouffe named Uber's "campaign manager"

Tom Paine

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Uber yesterday announced it had hired what it referred to in a blog post as the "leader of Uber's campaign", former Obama aid and campaign manager David Plouffe.

David Plouffe / Wikipedia

Plouffe, 47, was born in Wilmington, and attended St. Marks High School and the University of Delaware. He left the University prior to graduation in 1989 to begin his full time political career, but later completed his degree there in 2010.

Plouffe's actual title will be senior vice president of policy and strategy. The move reflects Uber's intent to mount a massive campaign to take on the regulatory agencies of the world who often defend traditional taxi businesses. Plouffe said he planned to run Uber’s communications efforts much like a political race. Traces of that have already been evident, with a heavy emphasis on social media as was used in the Obama campaigns.

Just got press release from @uber w/ testimonials from politicians about @davidplouffe. Uber's not a company. It's one big campaign.
— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 20, 2014

Plouffe's role might be compared to that of David Cohen of Comcast, although Cohen is also
an attorney in addition to having considerable political experience.

Uber, which was recently funded at an $18 billion valuation, received an early seed round
led by First Round Capital. Its cofounder and chairman, Garret Camp, had worked with
Josh Kopelman as founder of StumbleUpon, in which First Round Capital was (and is) an investor.