Who is Anant Yardi? 5 points about Indian-origin, IIT Delhi alum who took over as WeWork CEO | Trending
Indian-origin Anant Yardi takes over as CEO of the bankrupt coworking giant WeWork. An IIT Delhi graduate, he immigrated from India in 1968 and started his own business with his wife, Yardi Systems. Anant Yardi, the Indian-origin IIT Delhi alum who took over as WeWork CEO. (www.yardi.com) 1. About his company in the USThe engineer from India started Yardi Systems, which sells property management software to commercial and residential landlords, reported the Financial Times. Currently, it is a multibillion-dollar family-owned company. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! 2. Yardi’s investment in WeWorkYardi invested more than $200mn in equity and debt through an anonymous vehicle less than two years ago and spent another $337.5 million just about two months ago. This was to counter an offer WeWork co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann, who wanted to get back into the company. Neumann founded the company in 2010, which became worth $47 billion 2019. However, he stepped down as CEO after questions were raised about his dealings in the company’s IPO filing. Subsequently, the company filed for bankruptcy. 3. Why did Yardi choose to take up the position?In an interview with the outlet, the business tycoon said, “WeWork is such a popular and well-known brand, it didn’t seem right to let it go down”. “I realise financial decisions are not made on right and wrong. But there’s also a tremendous opportunity in terms of turning around WeWork,” he added. 4. The future planAs per the outlet, Yerdi wants to expand WeWork’s marketing to small businesses after the bankruptcy. “Our view of co-working is that it’s an interesting combination of hospitality or hotelling, apartment leasing and commercial leasing,” he told the outlet. 5. What did Anant Yardi study?In addition to his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, he has an MS in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. Before starting his own company, he worked at the Burroughs Corporation for 14 years. There, he was responsible for developing programming methodologies and directing systems development.
