Uber CEO just hired his number two. Yes, it's a man.

Uber just hired a new second-in-command.

Barney Harford, former CEO of online travel site Orbitz, is joining Uber as chief operating officer, Uber announced on Wednesday.

Filling that position has been a long-time coming for the ride-hailing giant. Uber cofounder and former CEO Travis Kalanick said back in March that his team was searching for a COO. Kalanick's right-hand man was Emil Michael, whose title was chief business officer and was also quite a horrible human.

Of course, Kalanick's plan got a little disrupted as many of Uber's leadership were ousted, some for sexual harassment, some who just left on their own accord. In June, Kalanick himself was ousted.

Harford will serve under Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. He was recruited in August. At his first all-hands meeting at the company, he shared that one of his top priorities was hiring. That didn't necessarily mean a COO, of course. In October, Uber named Tony West, former general counsel at PepsiCo, as chief legal officer.

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There's still some spots to fill at the top, but the new executive team will attempt to set the company on the right path after a horrible 2017. Harford admitted Uber's previous problem in an interview with Bloomberg.

“It is very clear that the way the company was run before is not acceptable and we absolutely need to change. I know Dara’s way of operating and he knows mine," Harford told Bloomberg.

Uber's CEO gushed about Harford's experience in operations in a letter sent to employees and shared on Uber's corporate blog on Wednesday (see below).

Khosrowshahi is quite familiar with Harford. They worked together at Expedia. When Harford moved to Orbitz in 2009, they became competitors. Orbitz later sold to Expedia, so once again, they were on the same team.

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Harford also has been serving as an adviser to Khosrowshahi since October.

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Harford's first day is January 2. New year. New Uber?

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Here's the letter from Khosrowshahi:

Team –

I’m happy to announce that Barney Harford will be joining Uber as Chief Operating Officer, starting January 2.

Barney is the former CEO of Orbitz. He has deep experience building and managing two-sided marketplaces and has served as an advisor to Uber since October, so you may have already seen him around. He’s spent the last few months learning how Uber works and developing perspectives on how it can work even better in the future, so he’ll hit the ground running in January.

I have never met a stronger operator or a more thoughtful strategist than Barney. He is able to go deep on key aspects of a business while never losing sight of the big strategic picture. He loves engaging with operations, marketing, product, and engineering teams around hard problems, and is passionate about using technology to transform the world.

Barney came to the US from the UK in 1999 to work at Expedia when it was still part of Microsoft. We worked together after I joined as Expedia as CEO, and he was leading the company’s push into Asia. In 2009 he joined Orbitz and went on to turn that company into such a success that I just had to acquire it! 🙂

Barney will continue to serve on the boards of United Airlines and RealSelf, where he is chairman.

Barney enjoys skiing, surfing, and photography, and loves classical music. He and his wife Beth Birnbaum have two kids.

Please join me in welcoming Barney to the team!

Dara