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Marissa Mayer defends former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

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Marissa Mayer, chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc., center, walks in the Congress Center between sessions during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 17 - 20. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
Marissa Mayer, chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc., center, walks in the Congress Center between sessions during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 17 - 20. Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergJason Alden/Bloomberg

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has absorbed blistering criticism for the way he handled allegations of sexual misconduct at the San Francisco riding-hailing service.

But he can at least count on the support of one big name in Silicon Valley: former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Speaking at the annual Stanford Directors’ College Tuesday, Mayer defended Kalanick, suggesting that he was unaware of the toxic culture brewing at Uber because of the company’s rapid growth. Mayer’s name has come up in reports as a possible replacement for Kalanick at Uber, though there’s no indication the company has had talks with her.

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“Scale is incredibly tricky,” Mayer said. “I count Travis as one of my friends. I think he’s a phenomenal leader; Uber is ridiculously interesting.”

“I just don’t think he knew,” she said. “When your company scales that quickly, it’s hard.”

Mayer then compared Uber’s situation to the early days of Google when it first brought in Eric Schmidt as CEO to help co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page manage the company.

Mayer’s defense of Kalanick might seem strange given her iconic status as the rare female chief executive in the male-dominated world of technology. But Mayer has said she does not consider herself a “feminist” and once described herself as “gender oblivious.” Prior to becoming CEO of Yahoo in 2012, Mayer was an engineer turned top executive at Google in Mountain View. She recently stepped down as Yahoo CEO after Verizon completed its $4.5 billion acquisition of the once formidable Sunnyvale Internet giant’s Web properties.

Kalanick, who co-founded Uber, recently resigned as CEO after months of scandal and turmoil. He remains on the board.

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The beleaguered ride-hailing company has said it will implement 47 sweeping recommendations from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, whom it hired to investigate allegations of sexism, bullying, retaliation and other workplace issues.

Holder’s report acknowledged the catalyst: a blockbuster blog post from former engineer Susan Fowler in February detailing hostility toward women at Uber’s San Francisco headquarters — and her futile attempts to get managers to respond. Since then, Uber has been mired in other controversies: a trade-secrets lawsuit, a program to evade law enforcement, an engineer’s suicide and a video of its CEO berating a driver.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee

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Thomas Lee is a business columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of “Rebuilding Empires,” (Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press), a book about the future of big box retail in the digital age. Lee has previously written for the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Times and China Daily USA. He also served as bureau chief for two Internet news startups: MedCityNews.com and Xconomy.com.