Dive Brief:
- The two executives taking the helm of WeWork since co-founder Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO on Monday are Artie Minson, the company’s CFO, and Sebastian Gunningham, its co-chairman. Neumann has assumed the role of non-executive chairman.
- Minson will oversee the flexible-space company’s financial, legal, human resources and communications functions, while Gunningham will lead product, design, sales and marketing, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
- Minson has been a defender of the company’s big-loss, fast-growth strategy, according to reports. Gunningham is seen as a tech-management pro who brings an outsider’s independent view.
Dive Insight:
The co-executives face the task of convincing investors the company can move past the tumult created by Neumann, whose tenure was riddled with conflict-of-interest concerns and who burned through money quickly, the Journal said.
To save costs, especially with an eye toward getting the company’s IPO back on track, Minson and Gunningham are expected to lay off thousands of employees, the Journal reported.
“As we look toward a future IPO, we will closely review all aspects of our company with the intention of strengthening our core business and improving our management and operations,” the two executives said in a statement the company released.
Minson was hired away from Time Warner Cable in 2015 to be the company’s chief operating officer. In 2016, he assumed the CFO role.
According to the Journal, Minson positioned WeWork as a company that would attract the heady valuation of a tech company and said it could reach $50 billion in the IPO.
The company delayed the IPO after it became clear the valuation would be lower than anticipated.
