Miguel McKelvey is the co-founder of the coworking space WeWork.
But what is the story behind McKelvey and what is his net worth?
Who is Miguel McKelvey?
Miguel McKelvey was born in 1974 and grew up in Eugene, Oregon, where his family founded and ran the weekly newspaper Eugene Week.
He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1999 with a degree in architecture.
After graduating McKelvey went to Tokyo and co-founded a social network called English, Baby! that connected English language learners with fluent English language speakers.
READ MORE ON THE 24/7 PROJECT
The company quickly grew to 25 employees but he sold up and moved to New York to work at Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture which is where he met Adam Neumann.
Neumann worked in the same office building, and the pair met at a party.
Neumann had asked McKelvey to design an office space for one of his new ventures.
McKelvey said: “We are totally different people. For whatever reason, we just connected.”
In 2008, Neumann started renting out part of his office to someone he found on Craigslist to keep costs low.
From this, Green Desk was born – an eco-friendly coworking space which was stocked with free-trade coffee.
McKelvey stayed up all night designing a name, logo and website for Green Desk.
Despite the financial crisis, spaces started to fill up and the pair went on to sell the business to their landlord.
They used the funds to then create WeWork in 2010, with the first office space opening up in Soho, Manhattan, New York.
McKelvey said: “It seemed so obvious to us. What was out there for office space was not good – it sucked.”
WeWork then evolved into WeCompany which included WeLive, a co-living venture, WeGrow, a private school and RisebyWe, a luxury gym.
McKelvey played a pivotal role in the founding story but Neumann increasingly became the face of the firm.
McKelvey said: “I like to be next to the centre of attention, I like the idea of it, I just don’t want to be it, but I really enjoy the energy that comes from that.”
By the time SoftBank was considering an investment in 2017, it was Neumann alone who delivered the famous 12-minute pitch to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son that raised $4.4 billion.
At its height, WeWork had locations in nearly every continent on the planet, and was valued at $47 billion.
But by 2019, the company started to implode and investors pushed Neumann out.
From the start McKelvey kept under the radar so when Neumann left, he remained as chief culture officer.
On November 6, 2019, SoftBank’s Son admitted his “really bad judgement” in investing in WeWork after the tech investment fund reported the biggest loss in its 38-year history.
In 2018, WeWork ditched meat and prohibited employees from expensing meals that included it.
The idea was driven by McKelvey who is vegan. “Absolutely certain this is one of the best things we’ve ever done,” he said at the time.
In 2022, McKelvey left WeWork, however, still holds a stake in the business.
What is Miguel McKelvey’s net worth?
Miguel McKelvey’s current net worth stands at $900 million, which has fallen from a peak of $2.9 billion at WeWork’s peak.