David Risher

David Risher
Born	John David Risher 15 7, 1965
Birthplace	Washington, D.C., United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	CEO of Lyft
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Worldreader; Senior Vice President at Amazon.com
Education	Harvard Business School (MBA)

John David Risher (born July 15, 1965) is an American businessman, technology executive, and philanthropist who serves as the chief executive officer of Lyft, the rideshare company. Before assuming leadership of Lyft in April 2023, Risher built a career spanning some of the most consequential technology companies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including Microsoft and Amazon.com, where he served as Senior Vice President of US Retail. In 2009, he co-founded Worldreader, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding access to digital books for children and families in the developing world. Risher's career has moved between the for-profit technology sector and the social enterprise space, and his appointment as Lyft CEO marked a return to corporate leadership after more than a decade focused on philanthropic work. Known for his hands-on management style, Risher has drawn attention for periodically driving for Lyft himself, a practice he has described as essential to understanding the experience of the company's more than one million drivers.

Early Life

David Risher was born on July 15, 1965, in Washington, D.C., to John R. Risher Jr. and Sarah Walker Risher. Details about his childhood and upbringing in the Washington, D.C. area remain limited in the public record, though Risher has spoken in interviews about formative influences that shaped his interest in both technology and education.

Risher attended Princeton University, where he studied at what is now the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. His time at Princeton exposed him to questions of public policy and international development, themes that would later inform his philanthropic endeavors. After completing his undergraduate education, Risher went on to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. The combination of a public policy-oriented undergraduate education and a graduate business degree would prove instrumental in shaping Risher's dual career trajectory in corporate technology and social enterprise.

Education

Risher holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where he was affiliated with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (now the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs). He subsequently earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991.

Career

Microsoft

Risher began his career in the technology industry at Microsoft Corporation, where he served as an executive. His tenure at Microsoft placed him within one of the dominant technology companies of the 1990s and provided experience in software development, product management, and business strategy at scale. The skills and relationships developed during this period would inform his subsequent move to Amazon.com.

Amazon.com (1997–2002)

In 1997, Risher joined Amazon.com, the online retailer founded by Jeff Bezos, at a critical juncture in the company's growth. Amazon had gone public earlier that year, and Risher joined as the company was expanding rapidly beyond its origins as an online bookstore. He rose to the position of Senior Vice President of US Retail, one of the most significant operational roles in the company, overseeing the core domestic retail business during a period of aggressive growth and diversification.

During his time at Amazon, Risher was involved in scaling the company's retail operations as it expanded into categories well beyond books, including music, electronics, and a growing array of consumer goods. His tenure coincided with both the explosive growth of the dot-com bubble and its subsequent collapse, a period that tested Amazon's business model and required significant operational discipline. Risher has spoken in subsequent interviews about lessons learned from working with Jeff Bezos during this formative era of e-commerce.

One notable cultural artifact from Risher's time at Amazon is his connection to an Easter egg embedded in the Amazon website. According to reports, the Amazon website contained a hidden feature that, when users searched for specific terms, would produce an unexpected result — a piece of early internet whimsy that reflected the playful culture of Amazon's early years.

Risher departed Amazon in 2002, after approximately five years with the company. His departure came as Amazon was transitioning from a period of rapid expansion and significant losses toward profitability, a milestone the company would achieve in subsequent years.

Worldreader (2009–2022)

After leaving Amazon, Risher shifted his focus toward philanthropy and social enterprise. In November 2009, he co-founded Worldreader together with Colin McElwee. The organization's mission was to use digital technology — initially e-readers and later mobile phones — to provide access to books for children and families in regions with limited access to physical libraries and bookstores, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Risher served as Worldreader's CEO and president, leading the organization through significant growth. The premise of Worldreader was rooted in the observation that while physical books were scarce in many developing regions, mobile phone penetration was increasing rapidly, creating an opportunity to deliver digital reading material at scale. The organization partnered with publishers around the world to make thousands of titles available digitally, including local-language books that reflected the cultures and contexts of the readers they served.

The Princeton Alumni Weekly profiled Risher's transition from Amazon executive to non-profit leader, documenting his journey from the corporate technology world to the field of international literacy and development. Business Insider named Risher and McElwee among "entrepreneurs who are changing the world" for their work with Worldreader.

Worldreader maintained financial transparency, publishing its financial reports publicly. Risher also contributed writings on topics related to literacy, education, and technology to the Huffington Post.

During his time leading Worldreader, Risher also served on the International Advisory Board of ESADE, the European business school based in Barcelona, Spain.

Lyft (2023–present)

Risher had served on the board of directors of Lyft for approximately two years before being approached on Valentine's Day 2023 about the possibility of applying to become the company's CEO. He succeeded Lyft co-founder Logan Green as CEO in April 2023, taking the helm of a company that had faced significant competitive pressure from rival Uber and questions about its path to sustained profitability.

Risher's appointment represented a notable leadership transition for Lyft, bringing in an executive with deep experience in e-commerce and non-profit management but who was relatively new to the rideshare industry. In a Semafor profile, Risher described this period as a "wet cement" moment — an opportunity to reshape the company's culture and strategic direction while the organization was in a state of transition.

One of the distinguishing features of Risher's leadership at Lyft has been his practice of personally driving for the platform approximately every six weeks. Risher has described this practice as a way to understand the driver experience firsthand, saying, "I always say this: I drive to learn, not to earn. But I really want to learn about what the driver experience is like and what the rider experience is like." He has compared the experience of driving for Lyft to being "a little bit like being a therapist and a bartender," noting that riders frequently share personal stories during their trips. A Business Insider profile noted that most riders do not recognize him but "go bananas" when he reveals his identity as the CEO.

Under Risher's leadership, Lyft has navigated questions surrounding the emerging autonomous vehicle and robotaxi industry. In an interview with The Verge in November 2025, Risher discussed the company's approach to autonomous vehicles and its strategy for partnering with self-driving technology companies rather than developing its own autonomous driving systems, as well as the company's approach to driver compensation. In a September 2025 interview with Katie Couric Media, Risher discussed self-driving cars, robotaxis, his experiences working with Jeff Bezos at Amazon, and his vision for the future of ridesharing.

In February 2026, Lyft reported its fourth-quarter results, which prompted a mixed reaction from Wall Street. Lyft's stock declined approximately 15% following the earnings report, though Risher maintained that the consumer was showing "no softness." Risher subsequently sat down with Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde to discuss the company's quarterly performance and outlook. In a Fortune interview around the same period, Risher reflected on lessons from driving for the company, as well as advice he had received from Jeff Bezos during his early career.

Personal Life

A Business Insider profile published in June 2025 described elements of Risher's daily routine, including cycling and drinking matcha, providing a glimpse into his personal habits outside the office.

Risher has been involved in charitable giving beyond his work with Worldreader. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on donor-advised funds and charitable giving in the Bay Area, in which Risher was mentioned in connection with philanthropy.

Risher has maintained connections with his alma maters, Princeton University and Harvard Business School, and has been featured in alumni publications from both institutions. He was also featured in a Wilson College publication.

Recognition

Risher's work with Worldreader earned him recognition from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which is affiliated with the World Economic Forum. The Schwab Foundation recognized Risher as a Social Entrepreneur of the Year, acknowledging his efforts to expand digital literacy in the developing world.

Business Insider included Risher and his Worldreader co-founder Colin McElwee in its list of "entrepreneurs who are changing the world," highlighting the scale and ambition of their effort to deliver digital books to underserved populations globally.

Publishers Weekly named Risher one of its "Eleven for the Millennium" in January 2000, recognizing his influence on the book industry through his role at Amazon.com during a period when online retail was fundamentally reshaping how books were sold and distributed.

GeekWire recognized Risher among former Microsoft employees who went on to lead innovative non-profit organizations, noting the broader trend of technology executives applying their corporate skills to social impact work.

Since becoming Lyft CEO, Risher has been a frequent subject of media profiles and interviews in major outlets including Fortune, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Verge, Semafor, and Katie Couric Media, reflecting the level of public interest in Lyft's leadership and strategic direction.

Legacy

Risher's career represents an unusual trajectory in American business, spanning corporate technology leadership at two of the most significant companies of the internet era, a decade-long commitment to non-profit work in global literacy, and a return to corporate leadership at a publicly traded company navigating the transition to autonomous vehicles. His path from Microsoft to Amazon to Worldreader to Lyft has encompassed multiple phases of the technology industry's evolution.

At Amazon, Risher was part of the executive team that helped transform the company from an online bookstore into a broad e-commerce platform during a pivotal period in the company's history. His departure from Amazon and subsequent founding of Worldreader reflected a broader trend among early internet-era technology executives who, having achieved financial success, turned their attention to social impact and philanthropic endeavors.

Worldreader's model of leveraging existing consumer technology — first e-readers, then mobile phones — to deliver educational content in developing regions represented an approach to international development that drew directly on Risher's technology industry experience. The organization's focus on local-language content and partnerships with publishers around the world addressed a gap in digital literacy efforts that had previously relied heavily on English-language materials.

At Lyft, Risher took on the challenge of leading a company in a competitive market facing both operational challenges and a potential industry transformation through autonomous vehicle technology. His practice of driving for the platform and his emphasis on the driver experience have defined the early phase of his tenure, positioning Lyft as a company focused on its relationship with drivers at a time when the industry's long-term direction toward driverless vehicles remains uncertain.