Friday, December 18, 2015

MBTA Chief Administrator Shortsleeve's Historical Bain and Company-Uber Business Connection?


MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve has recently been proposing to apparently produce more passengers for the privately-owned, for-profit Uber cab/car corporation by: 1. eliminating late night T service for student passengers; 2. cutting The Ride para transit services for young and elderly people with disabilities; and 3. apparently providing MBTA-subsidized taxi cab payment vouchers to utilize on Uber cab/cars (driven by non-unionized drivers) for use by people with disabilities living in "premium" areas whose access to The Ride vans will be eliminated.

One reason Chief Administrator Shortsleeve of the "non-profit" MBTA might be proposing these T service cuts and changes in MBTA para transit policies is because of his historic business association, as a management consultant, with the same "for-profit" Bain and Company firm that Uber's East Coast manager Meghan Joyce apparently worked for historically. As the PE Hub Network website noted in  a September 16, 2008 article::

"Brian Shortsleeve has left H.I.G. Capital to become a principal with General Catalyst Partners...In an email to friends and colleagues, Shortsleeve wrote that he will concentrate on `leading recapitalizations, buyouts and growth equity investments in lower middle-market growth companies.'...Shortsleeve spent the past four years as a principal with H.I.G. Capital, before which he spent three years as a management consultant with Bain & Company."

And as the Boston Globe observed in its September 14, 2015 issue:

"...Since becoming one of the company's two East Coast general managers in May, she oversees Uber in the Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Nashville and Atlanta markets.

"Over the last couple of years, as ride-hailing services like Uber...have faced regulatory scrutiny in the Boston area, [Meghan] Joyce has become a familiar face to those who follow the issue. She's spoken on behalf of the company in front of the Boston City Council, Cambridge's licensing commission, and others...

"After college, Joyce...worked as a business consultant for Bain & Company...Later, she moved into private equity, joining Bain Capital..."

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