Uber’s top lobbyist jumps to boutique tech firm

Uber’s top lobbyist, Brian Worth, has joined the boutique tech lobbying firm Franklin Square Group.

The six-person firm represents the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Apple, Google, eBay, GoPro and Uber.

“I thought this was a good opportunity to be involved in a broader tech portfolio,” Worth told The Hill. “I had been at Uber for two and a half years, which in Uber years is kind of like dog years.”

Seeing technology policy from inside a company like Uber, Worth said, has been a crash course in how evolving technology affects the real world.

{mosads}“We’ve turned a corner a little bit, and there are a whole swath of changes to how we do everything in our lives. From a policy standpoint, you’re dealing with Congress and the federal government that have to re-think laws that were written” decades ago, he said.

Kara Calvert, a Republican partner at Franklin Square Group, said that Worth “has proven experience building bridges between Silicon Valley and Republican political leaders in Washington.”

Worth joined the ride-hailing app in May 2014, leaving the office of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who became the House majority leader a few months later.

Uber, which was founded in 2009, did not have lobbyists until 2013, when it hired Franklin Square Group. 

At the time Worth came to the company, it was only spending about $200,000 per year on advocacy. In 2016, Uber was shelling out almost seven times that amount — $1.36 million.

“Brian was a critical part of my team and essential to our work to foster innovation in the private sector and bring government into the 21st century,” McCarthy said in a statement. 

“With his years of experience in and out of the Capitol, Brian knows Congress and is an effective coalition builder. Brian is an asset on any team, and Franklin Square Group is lucky to have him,” he said.

Prior to his time on Capitol Hill, Worth worked within the George W. Bush administration, at the Small Business Administration.