Pete Buttigieg brought star power to the Transportation Department. Insiders explain how he's winning over his new staff, the White House, and Republicans.

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Pete Buttigieg brought star power to the Transportation Department. Insiders explain how he's winning over his new staff, the White House, and Republicans.
Pete Buttigieg drinks a root beer float while talking with journalists as he walks through the Iowa State Fair August 13, 2019.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hello everyone!

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Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.

What we're going over today:

Hello!

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This week was busy as ever, and we've got a ton of Insider deep dives to share with you today. But before we get to that, a look at what's trending this morning:

Now, let's get to it.


What Pete Buttigieg did next

From Adam Wren and Robin Bravender:

Rank-and-file Transportation Department employees saw their phones start blowing up the day President-elect Joe Biden announced that Pete Buttigieg was his pick to lead their agency.

One DOT staffer remembered being bombarded that December Tuesday with text messages, emails, and Facebook posts from friends who knew little about his actual job but were excited to hear that Buttigieg would be his boss.

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It's not uncommon for political stars and former White House contenders to land in a presidential Cabinet, but they usually don't call their new home the Transportation Department, a behemoth federal agency created during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and whose portfolio includes pipeline safety, air-traffic control, and highway maintenance.

Read the full story here:

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Black women CEOs and executives on their time in corporate America

From Jennifer Eum, Keishel Williams, Sawyer Click, and Taylor Tyson:

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Across corporate America, the struggle to place women - especially Black women - at the helm of major companies continues. Paving the way forward are women like Thasunda Brown Duckett, who was just named CEO of retirement and investment manager TIAA. She will become only the fourth Black woman chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.

Duckett is one of 67 women featured in this collection of responses from influential Black businesswomen in America.

Insider asked these executives, from leading companies like Google, Salesforce, and Amazon, to reflect on their rise to the top, the struggle of being a Black woman in white corporate America, and the best career advice they've received. Their answers are raw and poignant, emotional and inspiring.

Read the full story here:

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Google's superhuman hearing project

From Hugh Langley:

Alphabet's moon-shots division, X, is quietly working on a top-secret augmented-reality device that would give people enhanced hearing abilities, Insider has learned.

The project, which is internally named "Wolverine," is a nod to the comic-book mutant's heightened sense of hearing, said four former employees familiar with the details, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The team started seriously working on the project in 2018, the sources said, and in that time it has gone through multiple prototypes and has gained the favor of executives like Google cofounder Sergey Brin.

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Read the full story here:

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Inside the downfall of Nikola founder Trevor Milton

From Mark Matousek:

Trevor Milton's star rose as Nikola raised a billion dollars in funding and assembled a blue-chip roster of partners and customers. By 2020, Milton, the serial entrepreneur who'd started four companies before Nikola and sold two of them, was being compared to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

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But last June, Bloomberg was the first to report that the One prototype Milton unveiled in 2016 couldn't drive under its own power. Three months later, Hindenburg Research, a financial-research firm that calls out companies it thinks have misbehaved, said Milton had a long history of bending the truth.

Milton denied the allegations, but they hung over him until, a little over a week later, he resigned from the company that made him a billionaire, before it delivered a single truck.

Read the full story here:

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Lastly, don't forget to check out Morning Brew - the A.M. newsletter that makes reading the news actually enjoyable.

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Here are some headlines you might have missed last week.

- Matt


Demoralized junior bankers are contemplating ditching investment-banking altogether as they battle burnout after a grueling year working from home

Inside Apple's ambitious next decade, where it could redefine consumer tech with a VR headset, foldable iPhone, and even an Apple Car

What hedge funds really think about SPACs: How a money-printing frenzy could end in tears for whoever's holding the bag

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GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 30 stocks that are set to keep surging as economic acceleration and inflation continue to lift interest rates

The Wall Street Journal is revamping its digital strategy to get more traffic - and it's creating tension among some reporters

Meet the 15 executives with the most power under Amazon retail boss Dave Clark - and the 4 who got pushed down as he rose to CEO

Industry insiders say DraftKings is having M&A talks with a variety of potential targets. Here are the companies that could be on its shopping list and why.

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