Uber brings on 2 execs from Amazon and Dropbox to woo more businesses into expensing rides for employees

Uber is deepening its push into winning corporate business accounts and has brought on two industry veterans to add to its Uber for Business team.Dropbox veteran Julie Herendeen started this week as Uber's new global head of enterprise marketing. Amazon's AdrianAgostini also joined this weekas Uber's new VP of revenue to lead its enterprise sales.Herendeen had previously lead marketing for Dropbox before she stepped down in March 2016. Agostini has spent over nine years with Amazon as a VP of sales.Uber's big additions to the business team underscore how much the company has rapidly become the default for business rides and how serving those customers needing to deal with expense accounts has become more of a priority. According to a January 2017 study by Certify, Uber now accounts for the majority of the transportation market for business travelers in terms of volume of rides, surpassing taxis, rental cars, and its competitor Lyft.While Lyft has scaled back its enterprise sales team to focus more on healthcare and government spending, Uber is doubling down on bringing corporations on board.More than 65,000 companies are already using Uber for Business to track employee spending on rides and manage corporate expenses, the company said.At its current pace, Uber expects business customers to spend more than $1.7 billion on rides in 2017. As a result, the ride-hailing company hasalready committed to tripling the size of its 100-person enterprise team in 2017.Uber declined to share the total rides booked on the platform in 2016.The new additions to Uber's leadership come at a tricky time as many executives are departing the ride-hailing Goliath that's been rocked by scandals since the beginning of 2017. Most recently, Uber's president Jeff Jones quit after six months with the company, citing differences with the leadershipat Uber. It's also currently undergoing a search for a new COO, and the company has said it will wait to fill many of the vacant senior leadership roles throughout the company until this person is chosen.SEE ALSO:Here's how Uber says it's fixing the 'cult of the individual' problem at the companyJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: We took a ride in Uber's new self-driving car on the streets of San Francisco 'here's what it was like
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