About

Matthew Wilson joined Uber in 2015, initially in London with responsibility for Northern Europe and now leads the legal team in EMEA, having done so since May 2017. Wilson has played an integral part in the Uber turnaround since 2017, a particularly challenging time for the company. Choosing to stay during this time is a moment Wilson takes pride in and has set the tone for how he has led his team since: ‘It taught me and our team, that legal teams can help drive significant positive change at times of crisis through showing leadership and courage to do things that are hard but will stabilise the foundations of the business for the long-term’, says Wilson. Proceeding to lead the team with this philosophy of fearlessness has enabled the team to successfully lead a licence renewal in London, a litigation win in Belgium and the settlement of various issues arising from the historic UberPop product in the Netherlands and positive regulatory change across the region in countries such as Finland, Croatia, Portugal, Egypt, Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Pakistan. All situations that, according to him, have been successful due in part to the team advising with courage and providing calm at times of crisis. Above everything, Wilson emphatically takes pride in having constructed and empowered the EMEA legal team that serves as a core function to the business who advises on over 40 different countries. ‘I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve managed to build in EMEA. We’re an amazingly diverse bunch of 50 people with an equal gender split, which is also reflected in our leadership team’. It is to this end that the overall satisfaction in the most recent team engagement survey was at 89%, a testament to Wilson’s success as a leader. Wilson has created a team that is fully accessible to business in the way that it provides legal support, creating dedicated points of contact within the team, for all major business teams across all of the products that they support, making team members partner with individuals in the business. Amongst his most exciting deals, Wilson has worked on launching UberPool in London, as well helping to launch and scale Uber Eats across the region and complete a US$3.8bn merger of the Russia CIS business with Yandex. Wilson’s first in-house job was at the O2 in the UK, joining when he was just two-and-a-half years qualified, he became the sole legal counsel for one of O2’s businesses (BE Broadband), ‘effectively becoming a mini general counsel alongside my day job’, says Wilson. Having to hit the ground running, Wilson admits it was, ‘miles outside his comfort zone’, however it was an opportunity that proved to be a, ‘brilliant learning experience’.