Surge-Price Builder Leaves Uber

Few people outside Uber have heard of UCLA economics professor Keith Chen or his research. But Uber riders, drivers and employees have benefited from his improvement to the much-reviled “surge price” algorithm, according to two people who worked with Mr. Chen at Uber.

Mr. Chen joined Uber in 2014 from UCLA and began redesigning Uber’s surge-pricing algorithm to make it work better, and in 2015 switched to Uber’s growth team led by Ed Baker. But he left Uber last month to rejoin UCLA. (See related article here.)