WeWork Inc. is bidding adieu to its chairman & CEO, Sandeep Mathrani, who will make his final exit next week on May 26. The news comes just over three years after Mathrani took the reins at WeWork, and in 2021, spearheaded the co-working company’s transition to a public corporation via a special purpose acquisition company. Mathrani will make a smooth transition over to Sycamore Partners as a director, while back at WeWork, David Tolley, a member of the Board of WeWork, will fill the void at the top as interim CEO, working in tandem with President & COO Anthony Yazbeck. Daniel Hurwitz, lead independent director, will become chairman of the company and his first task will be to head a special committee to find a permanent CEO.
Financially embattled WeWork is accustomed to being in the headlines. In April of this year, the company received a non-compliance warning from the New York Stock Exchange in response to the flex space provider’s share price having held at $1 for 30 trading days. The share price has yet to break the $1 mark and the company has six months from receipt of the warning to push its share price up, lest face delisting from the exchange. WeWork hit the co-working scene as a pioneer and seemed destined to skyrocket to the top and stay there. But the company has struggled since it first decided to go public and even though co-working and flex offices are becoming more popular, the struggling economy and stalled return to work effort have pushed the company into a tough spot. Whoever the new CEO turns out to be they will have a big task in front of them of restructuring the business to be more attractive to the public market and more able to take advantage of the changing office market.
