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Person

Tony Xu

Occupation:

CEO, DoorDash
Nationality:

American

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Tony Xu is a Chinese-American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder and CEO of the food delivery company Doordash. In addition to supporting relatively non-controversial causes, Xu is a donor to left-of-center politicians and causes. 1

In 2021, Xu was one of the major supporters of the Stand With Asian Americans campaign, which donated $10 million to mostly left-of-center Asian American organizations to oppose hate crimes against Asian Americans and anti-Asian racism. 2

In addition to supporting left-wing causes and politicians, Xu has drawn criticism for how he runs his company. In 2021, an investor advisory firm opposed Xu’s reelection to the board of Doordash because of how he structured Doordash’s board of directors and management and restricted the rights of the company’s shareholders. 3

Early Life

Tony Xu was born in Nanjing, China in either 1983 or 1984. His mother was a doctor in China. They immigrated to the U.S. when he was five. His mother could not work as a doctor in the United States, so she had to work multiple jobs to support her family. 4 One of those was as a server in a Chinese restaurant, for which Xu later became a dishwasher. 5

Tony Xu was not born Tony Xu. He legally changed his name to Tony Xu in order to have a name that Westerners could more easily pronounce. He has said that he took the name after Tony Danza, the actor in his favorite show “Who’s The Boss.” 6

Founding DoorDash

In 2012, while he was attending Stanford University, Xu and some classmates founded DoorDash. Xu has said that he was inspired by his experience as a dishwasher at the Chinese restaurant he and his mom worked at to create the company. 7

By April 2022, it had become the United States’s largest food delivery service. Xu took the company public in December 2020, which made him a billionaire. 8

In January 2022, Xu joined the board of Meta, parent company of Facebook. 9

Proposition 22

In 2020, DoorDash joined with other “gig economy” companies like Uber, Lyft, and Instacart to advocate for Proposition 22, which would allow them to classify their workers as contractors instead of employees. It would make it easier for the companies to deny their workers basic benefits such as a minimum wage and sick pay. The companies spent $200 million to help the proposition pass with 58.8% of the vote over the objections of labor unions and other activists. 10

Criticism Of DoorDash Management

In June 2021, the investor advisory firm Glass Lewis opposed Xu’s reelection to the DoorDash board. The company alleged the structure of the board and stock favors management. It claimed that it restricted the rights of company shareholders. 11

It specifically criticized the dual-class stock structure which gave Xu and his co-founders a voting majority. 12

Stand With Asian Americans

In March 2021, a group of Asian American businessmen and public figures wrote an open letter that was published as an ad in the Wall Street Journal. The open letter condemned violence and racism targeting Asian Americans. The coalition called itself Stand With Asian Americans. 13

In addition to the letter, the businessmen pledged $10 million to go to mostly left-of-center Asian American organizations with the ostensible purpose to fight hate crimes and other acts of racism targeting Asian Americans. One of the businessmen who signed the letter was Xu. 14

Support For Democratic Politicians

In 2019, Xu donated $3,050 to current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s Win The Era political action committee. 15

In 2020, he donated $7,200 to the Democratic National Committee. 16

Also in 2020, he donated $2,800 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and $10,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. 17

References

  1. “Browse Individual Contributions.”  Federal Election Commission. Accessed August 29, 2022. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Tony+Xu&contributor_state=CA.
  2. Akhtar, Allana. “Asian American Executives At Doordash, Youtube, Facebook Donated $10 Million To Support The AAPI Community.” Business Insider. March 31, 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-youtube-facebook-execs-donate-10-million-to-aapi-2021-3
  3. Abril, Danielle. “Doordash CEO Tony Xu Should Be Kicked Off The Board, Investor Advisory Firm Says.” Fortune. June 10, 2021. https://fortune.com/2021/06/10/doordash-ceo-tony-xu-board-glass-lewis-report/.
  4. Lipchik, Saul. “Meet Tony Xu, The Billionaire Co-Founder And CEO Of Doordash.” South China Morning Post. April 25, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3175218/meet-tony-xu-co-founder-and-ceo-doordash-chinese-american.
  5. Lipchik, Saul. “Meet Tony Xu, The Billionaire Co-Founder And CEO Of Doordash.” South China Morning Post. April 25, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3175218/meet-tony-xu-co-founder-and-ceo-doordash-chinese-american.
  6. Lipchik, Saul. “Meet Tony Xu, The Billionaire Co-Founder And CEO Of Doordash.” South China Morning Post. April 25, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3175218/meet-tony-xu-co-founder-and-ceo-doordash-chinese-american.
  7.  Lipchik, Saul. “Meet Tony Xu, The Billionaire Co-Founder And CEO Of Doordash.” South China Morning Post. April 25, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3175218/meet-tony-xu-co-founder-and-ceo-doordash-chinese-american.
  8. Lipchik, Saul. “Meet Tony Xu, The Billionaire Co-Founder And CEO Of Doordash.” South China Morning Post. April 25, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3175218/meet-tony-xu-co-founder-and-ceo-doordash-chinese-american.
  9. Wayt, Theo. “Mark Zuckerberg Defies Critics With Latest Meta Board Member.” New York Post.  Jan. 17, 2022. https://nypost.com/2022/01/17/mark-zuckerberg-defies-critics-with-latest-meta-board-member/.
  10. Wayt, Theo. “Mark Zuckerberg Defies Critics With Latest Meta Board Member.” New York Post.  Jan. 17, 2022 https://nypost.com/2022/01/17/mark-zuckerberg-defies-critics-with-latest-meta-board-member/.
  11. Abril, Danielle. “Doordash CEO Tony Xu Should Be Kicked Off The Board, Investor Advisory Firm Says.” Fortune. Jun. 10, 2021. https://fortune.com/2021/06/10/doordash-ceo-tony-xu-board-glass-lewis-report/.
  12. Abril, Danielle. “Doordash CEO Tony Xu Should Be Kicked Off The Board, Investor Advisory Firm Says.” Fortune. Jun. 10, 2021. https://fortune.com/2021/06/10/doordash-ceo-tony-xu-board-glass-lewis-report/.
  13. Akhtar, Allana. “Asian American Executives At Doordash, Youtube, Facebook Donated $10 Million To Support The AAPI Community.” Business Insider. March 31, 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-youtube-facebook-execs-donate-10-million-to-aapi-2021-3.
  14. Akhtar, Allana. “Asian American Executives At Doordash, Youtube, Facebook Donated $10 Million To Support The AAPI Community.” Business Insider. March 31, 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-youtube-facebook-execs-donate-10-million-to-aapi-2021-3.
  15. “Browse Individual Contributions.”  Federal Election Commission. Accessed August 29, 2022. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Tony+Xu&contributor_state=CA.
  16. “Browse Individual Contributions.”  Federal Election Commission. Accessed August 29, 2022.  https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Tony+Xu&contributor_state=CA.
  17. “Browse Individual Contributions.”  Federal Election Commission. Accessed August 29, 2022. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Tony+Xu&contributor_state=CA
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