WeWork, the struggling co-working giant attempting to turn itself around after a botched IPO attempt, is tapping industry veteran Sandeep Mathrani as CEO.
Mathrani is taking over the role from Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, the Wall Street Journal reported. The two have served as co-CEOs of the We Company — WeWork’s parent — since the departure of the startup’s founder, Adam Neumann, in September.
Mathrani was recruited to the shared-space startup by Marcelo Claure, executive chairman of the We Company. Claure is also an executive at SoftBank, which provided WeWork with a $9.5 billion rescue package to stave off bankruptcy and get Neumann to relinquish control. Claure, who was brought on to boost revenue at the company, will remain in his role.
In addition to laying off thousands of employees, WeWork has been shedding its non-core business lines to cut costs. Most recently, it divested its stake in women-focused co-working startup the Wing and sold software company Teem.
Last month, Deep Nishar, senior managing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund, said the company continues to believe in WeWork’s core business.
“We are still in it. We are involved. We are helping the company because we believe the idea at its core is very, very good,” Nishar said at Munich’s Digital Life and Design conference. “We will help solve WeWork’s problems with corporate governance with the next set of management.”
Mathrani announced early last month that he was stepping down as CEO of Brookfield Properties’ retail group. He had assumed that role after Brookfield acquired mall real estate investment trust GGP, of which he was CEO, in August 2018 for $15 billion. [WSJ] —Danielle Balbi