Steelie Neelie Kroes joins Uber as competition advisor

Controversial taxi app biz Uber has appointed former EU competition and telecoms regulator "Steelie" Neelie Kroes to advise it on, er, competition and regulation.

No doubt Kroes' wealth of knowledge of the EU's reams of red tape will help the biz navigate the very regulators Uber has repeatedly butted heads with in the jurisdiction.

Under the appointment she will join a number of international policy wonks as part of Uber's Public Policy Advisory Board, which met for the first time this week.

David Plouffe, chief advisor & member of the board of directors said: "We had vibrant discussions about every aspect of our business and the unique challenges and opportunities Uber faces around the world."

Other board members include: the former prime minister of Peru, Roberto Daniño; former US secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood; former president of the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense, Gesner Oliveira; Saudi princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud; and chair of the Quality Council of India, Adil Zainulbhai.

In April Uber also appointed Arianna Huffington – founder of the eponymous blog site – to its board.

Kroes clearly can't get enough of sitting on boards of major tech companies that are yet to turn a profit.

In March she also pulled up a seat at the board of perpetually loss-making SaaS pioneer Salesforce. ®