WeWork to Name New Chief

WeWork, the troubled operator of shared office space, is planning to appoint Sandeep Mathrani, a senior executive at the commercial real estate company Brookfield Properties, as its new chief executive, according to a person people briefed on the hiring.

Mr. Mathrani replaces Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, the co-chief executives who took over in September from Adam Neumann, the WeWork co-founder whose growth-at-all-costs strategy brought the company to the brink of financial collapse last year.

The appointment of Mr. Mathrani would be an important part of WeWork’s attempts to build a business that can sustain itself in the fast growing but highly competitive market for flexible office space. Mr. Mathrani has been chief executive of Brookfield’s retail division since August 2018, according to his LinkedIn page. The appointment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

WeWork withdrew its much anticipated initial public offering in September. SoftBank, WeWork’s largest outside shareholder, agreed in October to bail out the company. Marcelo Claure, a senior SoftBank executive, became WeWork’s executive chairman and has been overseeing the company’s overhaul, which involves pulling back from certain markets, selling off noncore businesses and finding new ways to finance its operations.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/business/wework-chief-executive.html?emc=rss&partner=rss