WeWork's CEO Makes Millions as Landlord To WeWork

An anonymous reader shares a report: For more than two months after employees at IBM moved into a Manhattan building managed by office space giant WeWork, frequent elevator problems forced workers to climb the stairs of the 11-story building and prompted complaints to the company. One of the landlords behind the building was no ordinary owner: It was Adam Neumann, WeWork's chief executive, who leased the property to WeWork after buying it [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Neumann has made millions of dollars by leasing multiple properties in which he has an ownership stake back to WeWork, one of the country's most valuable startups. Multiple investors of the privately held company said the arrangement concerned them as a potential conflict of interest in which the CEO could benefit on rents or other terms with the company. WeWork, which was recently valued at $47 billion by investor SoftBank, signs long-term leases for office space with landlords, then subleases the space on a short-term basis to companies. Mr. Neumann, the 39-year-old executive who founded WeWork in 2010, is WeWork's largest individual shareholder and has voting control over the company.

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