Co-working space provider WeWork has announced that it hired real estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani as its new chief executive officer (CEO).
As the new CEO, Sandeep Mathrani, a seasoned real estate executive, will be tasked with turning around WeWork following its failed initial public offering (IPO) last year. Mathrani will officially become the company's chief executive on February 18.
He will be replacing WeWork executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, who had been working as co-CEOs since the departure of former CEO and co-founder Adam Neumann in September.
In a statement, Mathrani said: "I am honored to be joining WeWork at this pivotal time in its history. The Company has redefined how people and companies approach work with an innovative platform, exceptionally talented team and significant potential if we stick to our shared values and maintain our members-first focus."
Under the leadership of former CEO Neumann, the company was able to raise billions of dollars and expanded its co-working operations to hundreds of cities globally. It even reached a valuation of $47 billion during one investment round.
However, Neumann received tremendous criticism following WeWork's IPO filing in August, including the large losses reported by the company, the lack of a woman on its board of directors, and his unchecked power in the company and potential conflicts of interest.
Mathrani will report to WeWork's executive chairman, Marcelo Claure, who was the one who recruited him to the company. Claure is also board director and COO of SoftBank Group Corp, which took 80% ownership of the company as part of a deal to pump in $5 billion and accelerated a $1.5 billion equity investment in October.
Claure said: "Over the past 100 days since I joined WeWork, we have made tremendous progress strengthening the business. We continue to make important changes to implement a strong management team that better enables the Company to execute."
