WeWork Hires Andre Fernandez as Third CFO in Just Over Two Years
By Celia Young May 27, 2022 12:43 pm
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Coworking company WeWork named Andre Fernandez as the firm’s third chief financial officer in just over two years, as current CFO Benjamin Dunham plans to depart in June, WeWork announced Thursday.
Dunham is leaving after just 18 months at the coworking company — following in the footsteps of his predecessor, former oil executive Kimberly Ross, who left WeWork after only six months in the role due to “personal reasons,” the firm said at the time. The latest CFO departure comes after WeWork finally started to creep closer towards profitability, taking in $765 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022 and outpacing its net losses for the first time since 2020. (The company still lost $504 million in the first quarter.)
Fernandez joins WeWork, which went public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in October, from his most recent role as executive vice president and CFO of NCR, an Atlanta-based corporation providing business software and consulting for banks and retailers.
“With his demonstrated ability to balance operational excellence with financial discipline, Andre will provide instrumental leadership and direction as WeWork transitions from transformation to growth and innovation,” Sandeep Mathrani, CEO and chairman of WeWork, said in a statement Thursday.
Fernandez will be charged with managing WeWork’s accounting, internal audits, financial planning, public reporting, taxes and investor relations, according to a statement from the firm. The role is no easy task; Fernandez is the latest in a series of CFOs to attempt to steward the firm out of heavy losses caused by an aggressive growth strategy and cash-burning business model that started under former CEO and co-founder Adam Neumann.
“WeWork is a global visionary redefining the future of work, a future that focuses on creating a flexible, dynamic, and collaborative workplace environment for members and employees,” Fernandez said in a statement. “Moving forward, WeWork’s key differentiation point of offering flexibility has never been more critical to companies of all sizes.”
The Harvard-educated Fernandez previously served as president and CEO of CBS Radio and is currently on the boards of the social impact commerce platform Givewith and the Connecticut-based real estate finance SPAC Sachem Acquisition. He was formerly a board member of Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. and the National Association of Broadcasters.
His predecessor, Dunham, was promoted to CFO after working as WeWork’s CFO of the Americas. He joined the coworking company in 2018 after roles at Macy’s and as CFO of Pizza Hut. Dunham did not respond to a request for comment on his plans.
Fernandez did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment. WeWork declined to comment.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
