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This is everything we know about WeWork's new CEO Sandeep Mathrani, a former real estate executive who has been called a 'corporate turnaround artist'
This is everything we know about WeWork's new CEO Sandeep Mathrani, a former real estate executive who has been called a 'corporate turnaround artist'
Feb 4, 2020, 01:44 IST
Sandeep Mathrani is an Indian American real estate mogul. He was born into a wealthy family in India, Bloomberg reported.
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He briefly attended the prestigious boys' boarding school Eton in Berkshire, England.
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He soon transferred to a public high school in Philadelphia, when he was 16 years old.
He attended Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he earned a Bachelor of engineering, Master of engineering, and Master of management science.
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Mathrani's first venture into real estate was in 1986, after he graduated with his master's degrees. He said that he bought an apartment in Washington, DC, for $55,000 and sold it about a year later for $75,000, making $20,000 in the process.
Mathrani is mostly quiet about his personal life, but he is married to Ayesha Bulchandani-Mathrani, a board member at the Frick Collection.
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In 1994, he started at Forest City Ratner, a New York real estate development company.
There, Mathrani worked under Bruce Ratner, a former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Ratner became a mentor to Mathrani, and credited him with building the company's retail business at a dinner in Mathrani's honor in 2012. Mathrani then became executive VP of Forest City Ratner.
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In 2002, Mathrani moved to Vornado Realty Trust, where he was Executive VP running the company's retail business, also in New York.
In 2010, he became CEO of General Growth Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the country.
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At the time, GGP was coming out of what was the largest real estate bankruptcy in history.
In 2018, Mathrani led a sale of GGP to Brookfield Property Partners for a reported $15 billion. He became CEO of the company's retail group, and vice chairman of the company.
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That deal gave him a reputation for turning around failing businesses. Bloomberg called him a "corporate turnaround artist," while Mathrani credits his success to "plenty of luck."
On February 1, WeWork made news of the new CEO public.
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Now, Mathrani will first work on hiring more executives, and will.report to WeWork's executive chairman Marcelo Claure, who is also CEO of SoftBank Group.