Jodie Auster: Global Head of Travel, Uber

Published 25th February, 2026.

Episode #245 features a rare public interview with Jodie Auster, Global Head of Airports & Travel at Uber, and recently the Strategic Advisor to Uber's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi.

In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Jodie reflects on her journey from a risk-embracing Melbourne upbringing and early career in emergency medicine to leadership roles across Bain, Scoopon, Thumbtack and Uber, where she scaled Uber Eats through bold marketing bets and later worked directly with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

She speaks candidly about burnout during COVID, the craft of executive facilitation, influence without authority, risk as a two-way door, stepping away from a high-profile Regional GM role, and the questions she asks new team members to create the best team culture.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity!

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This episode is part of a special limited series showcasing Innovation supported by the City of Sydney. Visit the City’s website here: cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

To support this podcast, check out our some of our sponsors & get discounts:

→ $1,000 off Vanta: Your compliance superpower — Vanta.com/high

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Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly Here

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About us

The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most relatable role models in business, tech, finance, government and sport in the US, Australia, Singapore, India and New Zealand.

Launched over 6.5+ years ago - our 275+ guests come from various industries around the world including:

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Investing and Finance (VC, PE, Pension Funds, Family Offices)

Our guests across venture capital, growth investing, institutional capital, banking, pension funds and family offices include: Keith Rabois (MD, Khosla Ventures), Jason Collins (CEO, BlackRock Asia Pacific), Ryan Beiermeister (Partner, Founders Fund), David Haber (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz), Kevin Hartz (Managing Partner, A*), Mike Vernal (Partner, Conviction; Ex-Sequoia), David Schneider (Growth Fund Co-Lead Partner, Coatue), Venky Ganesan (Managing Partner, Menlo Ventures), Mark Suster (Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures), Kelland Reilly (Partner, Airtree; Ex General Atlantic, D1), Niki Scevak (Managing Partner, Blackbird), Paul Bassat (Managing Partner, Square Peg), David Neal (CEO, IFM Investors), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Michael Kim (Partner, Cendana Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Partner, Sapphire), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), David Shein (Managing Partner, OIF), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Rowan Simpson (Founder, Hoku) and more.

Technology, AI and software (Startups, Big Tech, Publicly Listed)

Our technology, AI and software guests include Jodie Auster (Uber’s Global Head of Travel), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Mel Silva (MD, Google), Jean-Michel Lemieux (former CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Google Chrome, Photos and Drive), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Dylan Babbs (Co-Founder & CTO, Profound), John Willett (Co-Founder & COO, Rogo), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Andrew Fraser (President, Halter), Bowen Pan (creator of Facebook Marketplace) and more.

CEOs, Boards and Major Company Senior Executives

Our guests leading some of the world's largest and most recognisable organisations include Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths Group), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Paul Grosmann (CEO, R.M.Williams), Andrew Penn (CEO, Telstra), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis USA), Brendan Hargreaves (CFO, Officeworks), Andrew Fraser (Board Chair, Bank of Queensland), Jaddan Cummerford (CEO, Unified Music), Ed McManus (CEO, Deliveroo) and more.

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Our government, diplomatic and public-policy guests include Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Amit Singh (Managing Partner, Mandala), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Australia's Foreign Service), Philip Green (Australia’s High Commissioner to India), Brendan Dowling (Deputy Secretary, Australia's Department of Home Affairs), Mukund Narayanamurti (General Manager for South Asia, Austrade) and Ryan Neelam (CEO, Centre for Australia-India Relations, Australian Government).

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