{"id":35502,"date":"2019-09-29T08:48:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T12:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=35502"},"modified":"2019-09-29T08:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T12:48:59","slug":"former-wework-ceo-adam-neumann-how-did-a-con-man-extraordinaire-bilk-investors-of-billions-while-the-banksters-supported-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=35502","title":{"rendered":"Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann: How Did A Con Man Extraordinaire Bilk Investors Of Billions While The Banksters Supported Him?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is a \u2018phony\u2019 who \u2018thinks he is a Jesus figure\u2019: Insiders<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/div>\n
Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and his wife Rebekah Neumann<\/h5>\n

By Dana Schuster
\nNew York Post<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, billionaire Adam Neumann stepped down from his role as CEO of the office-rental start-up WeWork, in the wake of reports about his outlandish behavior and the company pushing back its once highly anticipated stock IPO.<\/p>\n

And while the abrupt, reportedly forced, departure may look like a disaster for WeWork, insiders says it\u2019s actually a relief to employees \u2014 and, perhaps, for the CEO himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way for him to phase out,\u201d said one top staffer who recently left. \u201cNow he doesn\u2019t have to deliver on all the crazy things he promised. \u201d<\/p>\n

Among Neumann\u2019s reported wildest dreams was creating WeWork Mars \u2014 an office space on the red planet. And at a company event in 2018, he said, \u201cThere are 150 million orphans in the world. We want to solve this problem and give them a new family: the WeWork family.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a New York magazine story from June, Neumann recently told a person close to the company, \u201cWhen countries are shooting at each other, I want them to come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe clearly is very smart and ambitious,\u201d said a real-estate executive who has had dealings with WeWork. \u201cBut he starts talking about some of the more germane aspects of the city\u2019s land-use process, which [is] our specialty, and he has no idea what he\u2019s talking about. Your bulls\u2013t meter just goes off with him. He\u2019s the quintessential person who doesn\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a former WeWork executive who left the company last month places at least part of the blame on Softbank, the Tokyo-based conglomerate that has poured money into buzzy American startups including Uber and Slack. Softbank has funded We Co, WeWork\u2019s parent company, to the tune of more than $10 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m angry at Softbank. You give a guy that amount of money for him to go crazier and harder and faster \u2014 and then turn around and fire him for going too crazy, too hard, too fast. It reeks of \u00adhypocrisy,\u201d said the former exec.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal recently reported how, in 2018, Neumann and some pals left a wad of marijuana stuffed in a cereal box on a borrowed private plane. The jet\u2019s owner, furious, recalled the plane, leaving the CEO, who is worth a reported $4.1 billion to find an alternate ride back home.<\/p>\n

But the former executive stresses that Neumann is a well-intentioned Icarus allowed to get too close to the sun with his over-the-top behaviors \u2014 when all he really needed was someone to pull him down to earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never got the sense that he was a bad dude,\u201d said the exec of Neumann, 40. \u201cThe board could have grown a pair and called Adam out on his behavior. This conclusion was perfectly avoidable 18 months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to others, the \u00adC-suite was too scared to talk sense into their wild leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time, we asked one of the top execs, \u2018Since you\u2019re more established, can you bring him back to reality?\u2019\u201d recalled another insider, who left the company earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she said, \u2018When Adam comes in and wants to do this or that, even if it\u2019s a really bad idea, we will figure out how to do it.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A WeWork office facility stands in the Financial District.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to multiple former WeWork employees, Neumann seemed to manage by his own code of conduct.<\/p>\n

One staffer, who was in WeWork\u2019s real-estate division for three years, established the employee support group We of Color after, he claims, experiencing racism at the company\u2019s 2018 London Summer Camp retreat.<\/p>\n

The We of Color source said he was called the N-word and that mud was kicked and liquor thrown at him and fellow black team members by other WeWork employees.<\/p>\n

\u201c[After we established We of Color] we requested a meeting with Adam,\u201d said the We of Color source of his group. \u201cHe never took the meeting. He kept saying he was going to take the meeting and would set it up and his assistant would cancel it and cancel it. She said, \u2018Honestly, Adam does not want to talk about this and you\u2019re not going to get the support for this.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for Neumann and his wife had no comment for this story, while a spokesperson for WeWork said the company cannot comment on matters during the pre- IPO \u201cquiet period.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former community manager at the company, who was one of the first 20 hires, said Neumann was highly inappropriate when screening her for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me in my interview: \u2018Are you pregnant or planning to be pregnant anytime soon? Do you live with someone?\u2019 Where do you live?\u2019\u2009\u201d she recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, he\u2019s crazy.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

His erratic behavior led some staffers to retaliate. When, in June 2018, he abruptly announced that WeWork was banning meat at employee events and would no long\u00ader reimburse staff for dinners of beef, poultry or pork, beleaguered workers found a way to strike back. According to one source, some started expensing pricey lobster meals. Others opted for the fanciest veggies they could find.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were going to \u00adMichelin-starred vegetarian restaurants,\u201d said a former engineer.<\/p>\n

He added that the way the \u00adno-meat announcement was handled was a mess.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they were banning meat, but then didn\u2019t explain whether people could bring meat [to the office for lunch]. Then it was clarified that you can eat meat. Then it was, \u2018You can\u2019t eat meat during the workday at all,\u2019\u2009\u201d the former engineer said. \u201cThere was then talk that we couldn\u2019t eat meat in the workroom. Then it was clarified that you could bring and eat meat at work, but WeWork won\u2019t fund it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Wall Street Journal article, employees witnessed Neumann eating meat after the announcement.<\/p>\n

The confusion around the ban, the former engineer said, \u201cwas a turning point at the company. Most people felt like management was talking down [to them], rather than working with [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

Neumann didn\u2019t always live the life of a tycoon. He was raised on an Israeli kibbutz by his mother, a doctor, and attended the Israeli Naval Academy and then Baruch College in NYC.<\/p>\n

After a series of start-up flops, including one for a shoe with a collapsible heel and another for baby clothes with built-in kneepads, Neumann founded WeWork with friend Miguel McKelvey.<\/p>\n

Enlarge Image<\/a>\"Miguel
Miguel McKelvey, co-founder and chief creative officer of WeWork.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The partners started in 2008, convincing a Dumbo landlord to let them take an empty commercial space, divide it into communal offices and rent those out. They struck out on their own two years later, opening the first WeWork at Grand and Lafayette Streets and securing venture-capital funding to expand.<\/p>\n

The early days were lean and mean. \u201cIf anyone left at 6 p.m., the CFO would say, \u201c\u2009\u2018Oh, half-day?\u2019 Everyone worked really hard 24\/7,\u201d said the former community manager.<\/p>\n

Back then, Neumann lived in a small, one-bedroom East Village apartment with his wife. He tripped up, it seems, in his quest to grow \u2014 and get rich \u2014 quick.<\/p>\n

We Holdings LLC, of which he is a managing member, finagled to trademark the word \u201cwe,\u201d to much outcry. Neumann then turned around and, in January of this year, sold the \u201cwe\u201d right to his real-estate company, \u00adreportedly pocketing $5.9 million for it. He later returned the money after a public flogging.<\/p>\n

He has also caught flak for buying properties that he then leased back to WeWork, murkily becoming both landlord and tenant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe self-dealing s\u2013t is cray-cray,\u201d said the real-estate exec.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outside, a lot of the pitch to the public and employees is all about this \u2018we\u2019 thing, but the closer you get to the core of the company, the less it exists. It\u2019s all about \u2018me\u2019 and \u2018I,\u2019\u2009\u201d said the former top staffer, adding that he spoke to Neumann directly about concerns over his self-serving \u00adimage. \u201cThat was the biggest letdown, personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neumann cashed out more than $700 million from the company \u2014 not a good look before an IPO \u2014 and has been buying up homes with abandon.<\/p>\n

Among his residences are a $10.5 million Greenwich Village town house and a $35 million property in Gramercy Park. There\u2019s a place in Water Mill, in the Hamptons, as well as a 60-acre Westchester farm, complete with a waterfall, horse-riding ring and tennis court, that came with a $22 million asking price. He and his family also own a $21 million home in the San Francisco area which reportedly includes a \u00adguitar-shaped room.<\/p>\n

\u2018It became difficult to sit through the meetings because he\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s about \u201cwe\u201d and it\u2019s not \u201cme,\u201d\u2019 [but] he\u2019s cashing out stock .\u2009.\u2009.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt became difficult to sit through the meetings because he\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s about \u201cwe\u201d and it\u2019s not \u201cme,\u201d\u2009\u2019 [but] he\u2019s cashing out stock .\u2009.\u2009. and he\u2019s not living the same way he\u2019s telling people to live,\u201d said the insider who left WeWork earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The engineer said Neumann would regularly have his personal trainer come to his corner glass office for boxing sessions.<\/p>\n

And, the engineer added, both Neumann and his wife, Rebekah \u2014 who was the chief brand and impact officer and is Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s first cousin \u2014 could come off as tone-deaf.<\/p>\n

He recalled Rebekah\u2019s announcement that the company was starting its own school, WeGrow, after being disappointed by education options for her and Neumann\u2019s five children.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebekah came on stage and started talking about how public schools were, in so many words, ruining children,\u201d the engineer said. \u201cShe said WeGrow would cost $35,000-$40,000 per student. You\u2019re announcing this in a room where most of your employees would not be able to afford a school like that .\u2009.\u2009. it caused a big ruckus in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebekah also stepped down on Tuesday. WeWork is, for now, being run by two of Neumann\u2019s former deputies, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham.<\/p>\n

The former community manager feels that Neumann has the strength to be a team leader \u2014 but not the chops to back it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is definitely an intense person who thinks he is a Jesus figure, but he\u2019s also very good at what he does,\u201d she said. \u201cHe \u00adinspires people well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds the insider: \u201cThe first time I went to one of the all-company speeches, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, this guy truly believes.\u2019 He was almost like a televangelist .\u2009.\u2009. he really believed it. But he\u2019s a complete phony.\u201d<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/09\/28\/ousted-wework-ceo-adam-neumann-is-a-phony-who-thinks-he-is-a-jesus-figure-insiders\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is a \u2018phony\u2019 who \u2018thinks he is a Jesus figure\u2019: Insiders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}