Some of the biggest names in the world of tech fled the wind-chilled hills of San Francisco this past weekend for the tropical beaches of Miami.
It was a cross-country migration that was all in the name of the love, with over 200 people gathering in South Beach for the wedding of former Uber business chief Emil Michael, 45, and his bride Julie Anne Herrin.
The pair were wed six years after they first met at Hyde nightclub back in 2012 while they were both in Las Vegas, with Herrin, 36, soon starting to move in the same circles as her now husband when she landed a job at IfOnly, a service that offers up one-in-a-lifetime trips and experiences to benefit charities.
Michael was an early investor in the company.
Among the high-profile guests in attendance at the event were ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and one of the individuals who called for him to step down from the company he founded last year, board member Arianna Huffington.
Kalanick also brought along his girlfriend of a little over a year Angie You, marking the first time the two have been spotted together in public.
They do: Former Uber business chief Emil Michael, 45, and his bride Julie Anne Herrin, 36, were married in Miami over the weekend (couple above at the ceremony)
Relaxed: Ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (above with guest Lee-Ann Roberts) attended, having always been incredibly close with Michael in their years together at Uber before both stepped down in June
Showdown: Arianna Huffington (above with a guest) was also in attendance at the wedding
Kalanick and Huffington were not the only two of famous faces saying ‘benvenuto a Miami’ for Michael and Herrin’s big day.
Social-media starters, STEM-smarties, self-promoters and multiple sex-scandal plagued executives were also soaking up some rays in the Sunshine State.
Photos posted by guess show attendees like Steve Jurvetson smiling from ear-to-ear as they pose with friends.
Juvertson’s giant grin comes after a 2017 that saw his step down from the boards of Tesla and SpaceX as well as his partner position at venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.
His 2018 did not kick off much better, with Axios reporting that he had hosted a sex party at his home in Half Moon Bay last summer, information they obtained from Emily Chang’s upcoming book Brotopia.
Juverston, who divorced his wife Karla in 2015, was joined by girlfriend Genevieve Wolff Lydstone.
She is the co-founder of Scout, which uses AI and actual humans to provide quicker and more efficient staffing to companies.
Rare sighting: Kalanick and his girlfriend Angie You (above)
‘A golden glow for Julie and Emil’s wedding in South Beach this weekend, with our dear friends from Dubai,’ wrote Juverston in the caption of one photo.
‘Gen Gen looks like a Golden Globe award :).’
Another photo, in which he and Lydstone were seen passionately kissing one another, was captioned: ‘Love was in the air.’
Michael stepped down just before his best bud and boss Kalanick in June after multiple women came forward to share stories of how sexual misconduct allegations were handled by Uber.
That resignation came three years after he championed the creation of a $1 million fund to stalk and dig into the lives of journalists who attack the company.
The one woman he cited at the time was writing a story on the very real mishandling of assault and harassment allegations that were brought to HR by female employees.
That tactic is remarkably similar to the ways in which Hollywood predator Harvey Weinstein tried to silence his victims and reporters.
Prior to that, both Michaels and Kalanick were widely criticized for their decision to take employees to an escort-karaoke bar in a poorly planned outing that was later highlighted in former Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigation into the company.
And when that decision backfired, Michael tried to bribe Kalanick’s then-girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth into claiming it was just a regular karaoke bar.
That was to deal with the backlash that came about when it was revealed the men had been calling out the numbers of women in a line-up for their enjoyment that evening.
Kalanick has remained at the company since stepping down and being replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi, who was formerly the CEO of Expedia.
Khosrowshahi has done a good job navigating a position where he is forced to deal with a board member who used to hold his job at the company.
A board member who used to hold his job and founded the company.
Kalanick also remains a towering presence because of his stake in Uber, which at 10 percent is worth approximately $7 billion.
He is now preparing to sell of about 29 percent of his stock in the company, which should net him a profit of $1.6 billion.
Kalanick’s resignation in June was not by choice, with five of the company’s biggest investors demanding his resignation.
In the aftermath of that shocking revolt by the company’s primary shareholders, it was revealed that while Kalanick was out as CEO he would remain a member of the Uber board.
‘I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,’ said Kalanick.
Meanwhile, one of the investors who demanded Kalanick step down, Bill Gurley of Benchmark, stepped down from his post on the company’s board of directors at that time.
Gurley had been pushing for change ever since February, when former Uber employee Susan Fowler wrote about her year working at the company.
Fowler alleged that she and other women at the company were subject to constant harassment by men, and that when she did take complaints to human resources they were always dismissed and nothing was done to change the toxic environment.
She even claimed that at one point an employee with the HR department stated that shew might be the problem, and not the men.
It was not just that either, and Fowler also detailed some members of the staff as doing everything they could to rise up in the ranks while sabotaging not only other workers but also the productivity of the company.
Gurley was replaced by Matt Cohler, his co-worker at the venture firm and a close friend of Sandberg.
It is unclear if he waited to take the position until after Sandberg made it clear that she would not take the job to avoid any possible conflicts of interest, as Gurley seemed to have already planned his exit early in the week.
Among the name floating around as possible replacements for Kalanick are newly ousted Yahoo head Marissa Mayer, Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard and Helena Foulkes of CVS.
AOL head honcho Tim Armstrong, former Ford CEO Mark Fields, and departing GE chairman Jeff Immelt are also said to be in the mix.
The decision to hire a female would send a strong message no doubt in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal plaguing the company, which led to the termination of 20 employees.
Uber, which was founded in 2009, has raised more than $14 billion ove rthe past eight years.
In the letter to Kalanick, the investors also demanded that an experienced CFO be hired and that the founder and former CEO help the board in their search for his replacement.