The group made a brief call to Steven Rubenstein, a crisis PR expert who regularly worked for the Murdoch family. Rubenstein ultimately decided not to take on Kalanick as a client, though he would cross paths again with Kalanick less than a month later. But as a parting gift, Rubenstein offered two pieces of advice: First, Kalanick had to “find his Sheryl,” a reference to Mark Zuckerberg’s relationship with Sheryl Sandberg, then widely considered a competent counterbalance to Zuck’s leadership. Second, he said Kalanick needed to take a leave of absence. “You either shoot yourself in the foot,
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