Former Obama campaign manager to run Uber's political strategy

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

U.S. President Barack Obama's political strategist David Plouffe is pictured in the audience as Obama nominates veteran foreign policy aide Denis McDonough (not seen) as his next White House chief of staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, January 25, 2013 in this file picture.

The San Francisco-based startup, which is waging an intense campaign against taxi drivers who fear encroachment on their turf, said in a blog post on Tuesday that Plouffe will begin in late September as senior vice president of policy and strategy.

'We needed someone who understood politics but who also had the strategic horsepower to reinvent how a campaign should be run - a campaign for a global company operating in cities from Boston and Beijing to London and Lagos,' Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick said in the blog post.

Plouffe, who left the White House in early 2013, 'is a proven field general and strategist who built the startup that elected a President,' Kalanick said.

Uber is one of the largest startups in California's Silicon Valley, reportedly valued at $10 billion or more. Like rival Lyft, it lets users call for a ride from their smartphones.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride and Edwin Chan; Editing by Paul Simao)