Uber hasn't had a chief financial officer since 2015, and its CEO just admitted that it's been a struggle to fill the role

Fortune

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi

• Uber plans to go public in 2019 but the ride-hailing startup still doesn't have a chief financial officer.
• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Monday that it's been difficult to fill the role and that he's being "picky."
• Financially though Khosrowshahi thinks Uber is on the right track to go public. He said he cares more about cash flow than profitability ahead of the IPO.

Uber has been open about its plans to go public in 2019, but before that happens the company needs to find a chief financial officer - a position that has been vacant at the ride hailing company since 2015.

Speaking Monday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi admitted that it hasn't been easy to find an executive to fill the role.

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"We are running a process that's taking longer than we'd like," Khosrowshahi told Fortune executive editor Adam Lashinsky. "I'm being picky here. I want a great, great CFO to lead this company into an IPO and beyond and we have some terrific candidates."

Khosrowshahi, who joined Uber in August 2017, reportedly picked VMware's CFO Zane Rowe for the role in April, but by May, Rowe reportedly turned down the job.

Since then, the company has lost two major executives. Uber Chief Brand Officer Bozoma Saint John left the company in June after just a year in her role. Last week, Chief People Office Liane Hornsey stepped down ahead of a report by Reuters that she had been the subject of an investigation over how she handled racial discrimination complaints.

While Uber's C-suite is increasingly barren, Khosrowshahi thinks its coffers are doing just fine.

Khosrowshahi said that he looks more at the company's cash flow than he does profits when prepping for the IPO, but that he thinks "over a period of time it is important for the business to be profitable."

Emerging markets for Uber, such as e-bikes, "are not going to be profitable in the near term," Khosrowshahi said, but he doesn't think it will have an impact on the company's public offering as long as the company shows that it's moving in the right direction.