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FORTUNE.COM // JULY 2019
SHE’S BAGGED takeout schnit-
zels and cold-called 200-
plus restaurants in her mis-
sion to build out Uber Eats,
which eventually led her
to broker major deals with
Starbucks and McDonald’s.
Uber Eats is on pace to be
the largest food delivery
company in the world out-
side China, and Meyerdirk
is a big reason for that.
She’s scaled up Eats, which
works with over 220,000
restaurant partners in over
500 cities in 35 countries
across six continents. As
detailed in Uber’s IPO fil-
ings this spring, her busi-
ness notched $1.5 billion
in revenue in 2018, up
149% from the year prior.
Though Meyerdirk started
out in investment banking,
Uber wasn’t such a U-turn.
“Two close friends worked
at Uber,” she says. “One has
known my husband since
college, and the other was
a former colleague. When
two people you trust agree,
it probably makes sense
to listen.”
Liz
Meyerdirk
AGE 37
Global head
of business
development,
Uber Eats
Transportation
politicspete buttigieg
presidential candidate age 37
Young, handsome, and openly gay, he’s a Rhodes
scholar and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan—in
short, a political unicorn who has some pockets of
the Democratic Party giddy with excitement. Yet
it’s not just his impressive CV and millennial appeal
that have helped Buttigieg transform, seeminglyMAYOR
OF SOUTH
BEND, IND.
overnight, from the mayor of a midsize Midwestern
city into a new player in national politics. A skilled
orator who can command a room of any size, he
comes across as both articulate and genuinely
accessible—capable of parsing complex political
challenges in a relatable way. Can he succeed
in a crowded field? It’s too early to tell, but he’s
certainly put South Bend on the map.