Lyft appoints former Tesla exec Jon McNeill as COO

Lyft has hired Jon McNeill, former president of global sales and service at Tesla as the company's new chief operating officer.

McNeill’s departure from Tesla was announced on Wednesday’s earnings call by Elon Musk though he didn’t reveal what McNeill’s next move would be. Lyft confirmed McNeill’s hire shortly after, citing his many years of experience in entrepreneurship and transportation as primary reasons for his selection to the senior role.

"Jon is a world-class leader who brings deep experience as a highly successful entrepreneur and game-changing transportation executive......During his time at Tesla, sales more than doubled, customer satisfaction increased to record levels, and his organization scaled to over 10,000 people across 32 countries," reads the company's blog post.

“Last year, the Lyft community experienced more growth than in all previous years combined, growing rides by 2.3x and increasing market share by more than 50%. Jon is the right leader to build upon this momentum with his unique background of starting companies from scratch and managing at scale.”

McNeill will fill in a vacancy left by the departure of Rex Tibbens, Lyft’s former COO, late last year . Tibbens helped Lyft expand throughout the US.