WeWork overview

WeWork (also known as 'The We Company') is a commercial real estate company providing shared workspaces for startups. Founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, it manages over 4m square metres of office space as of 2018.

WeWork have hosted startups and companies such as Reddit, HackHands and PepsiCo.

In 2011, WeWork opened WeWork Labs, a startup incubator, in New York.

In January 2019, WeWork was rebranded to The We Company. It paid Adam Neumann and additional WeWork founders, who owned the trademark, $5.9m to license the name (this was later returned to the company). The company also stated its valuation was $47bn.

In August 2019, WeWork announced it was to go public. There was heavy media coverage on the company losses highlighted by the S-1 filing disclosures, and analysts expressed doubt about the company's profitability.

In September 2019, following pressure from investors, co-founder Adam Neumann resigned as CEO and gave up majority voting control. Neumann's exit package was valued at $1.7bn. WeWork also announced it would delay its planned stock market listing until the end of the year. Later than same month, the company formerly postponed the IPO. At that time, the company's valuation had dropped to $10bn - $2.8bn less than the capital it had raised since 2010.

In October, SoftBank confirmed an $8bn capital infusion as a lifeline for the company. The move resulted in SoftBank owning approximately 80% of the company, however it does not hold a majority of voting rights. As part of the agreement, Adam Neumann has become a board observer, and Marcelo Claure, the COO of SoftBank Group, has become Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of WeWork.

At its peak, WeWork had over 12,500 employees in more than 32 countries, however in November 2019, WeWork announced plans to lay off 2,400 employees globally.

In January 2020 WeWork announced it had found its new CEO. Real estate exec Sandeep Mathrani was revealed to be taking over the top spot from co-CEO's Sebastian Gunningham, who were running the company since Adam Neumann's well-documented departure last year. 

Map showing the location of WeWork

New York City, United States

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Key people

Avi Yehiel Head of Wellness
Tim Salau Global Brand Evangelist
Benjamin Samuels Director of Enterprise
Ronald Fisher Board of Director
Mark Schwartz Board of Director
Lenore Vassil Global Head of Enterprise Technology
David Fano Chief Product Officer
John Reid-Dodick Chief People Officer
Elton Kwok General Manager, Northern California
Tom Sella VP, Product
Matthew Shampine General Manager of WeWork Korea
Harriet Feid Director, Global Hospitality Strategy
Jon Slavet CWeO - US & Canada West
Rui Barros SVP, Head of Operations - US/Canada East
Dillan DiGiovanni Global Mentor
Eyal Lasker Senior Product Manager
Nassima Leipold Director of Operations Northern, Eastern & Central Europe
Bjorn Lee Entrepreneur In Residence
Stephen Tapp Territory Vice President, Head of Canada
Victor Cunha Director of Real Estate Strategy and Operations LatAm
Tamir Michael Magen Labs Mentor
Kirthiga Reddy Board of Directors
Sandeep Mathrani CEO
Shyam Gidumal President ,COO ,North & South America
Saul Zulman Head Of Expansion
Jennifer Perrotta Vice President, Global Services
Hamid Hashemi Chief Product & Experience Officer
Jeko Kolev Head Of Portfolio Sales, EMEA
Roger Solé Chief Marketing Officer
Adam Wacenske Territory Vice President: Tri-State (NYC)
Masami Takahashi Chief Strategy Officer
Benjamin Dunham Chief Financial Officer
David Weiss Director - Asset Sales
Kathleen Yeh Chief Financial Officer, Americas
Thijs Sprangers Area Director
Claudia Woods Chief Executive Officer
Andre Fernandez CFO
Oksana Goncharova VP, Global Strategy & Operations
Saurabh Jalan Director
David Tolley Chief Executive Officer
Claudio Hidalgo Global Chief Operating Officer
John C. Santora Chief Executive Officer