Adam Neumann ran WeWork as something of a family-and-friends affair. Of the 20 or so executives who reported to him, half a dozen were either family members or close friends, including his wife Rebekah. With his departure on Tuesday as CEO, the future of many of those close associates is now in doubt.
Already his wife, who only recently was publicly listed as a WeWork co-founder alongside her husband and Miguel McKelvey, has departed. Her departure may lead to the shuttering of the WeGrow education initiative as well as a lesser emphasis on WeWork as a hot consumer brand, an effort she had championed. To salvage its standing with investors, WeWork is expected to emphasize its efforts to make its core business of office leasing profitable.