Rebekah Victoria Neumann (née Paltrow; born February 26, 1978) is an American businesswoman. Until September 22, 2019, she served as chief brand and impact officer at
WeWork
WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...
, a company founded by her husband,
Adam Neumann
Adam Neumann ( he, אדם נוימן; born April 25, 1979) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor. In 2010, he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey, where he served as CEO from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, he co-founded a family ...
, and oversaw its education program WeGrow.
Early life and education
Neumann, the daughter of Evelyn and Bob Paltrow, grew up in
Bedford, New York, and attended the
Horace Mann School
, motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails
, address = 231 West 246th Street
, city = The Bronx
, state = New York
, zipcode = 10471
, count ...
.
Her father had a
direct mail
Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...
business and spent a number of years in prison for tax evasion.
She went on to study business and Buddhism at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
. She later became a certified
Jivamukti yoga
The Jivamukti Yoga method is a proprietary style of yoga created by David Life and Sharon Gannon in 1984.
Jivamukti is a physical, ethical, and spiritual practice, combining a vigorous yoga as exercise, vinyasa-based physical style with adherence ...
instructor.
She received her yoga instructor certification from the
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is a non-profit educational retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York. Founded in 1977 by Elizabeth Lesser and Stephan Rechtschaffen, inspired by Sufi mystic, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and his ecu ...
.
She is a cousin of actress
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...
. Neumann is of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
descent and practices the faith.
When she started her yoga training, Rebekah went by the nickname Rebi.
Career
After graduating from college, Neumann entered Salomon Smith Barney's Sales and Trading Program, now known as
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is an American Multinational corporation, multinational financial services corporation specializing in Broker, retail brokerage. It is the wealth & asset management division of Morgan Stanley.
On January 13, 2009, ...
. In the early 2010s, she acted and produced some short films using the screen name Rebekah Keith.
In 2010, her husband,
Adam Neumann
Adam Neumann ( he, אדם נוימן; born April 25, 1979) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor. In 2010, he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey, where he served as CEO from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, he co-founded a family ...
, and
Miguel McKelvey
Miguel McKelvey (born 1974) is an American businessman, and the co-founder and former chief culture officer of WeWork.
Early life
McKelvey grew up in a "five-mother collective" in Eugene, Oregon. His family started and ran a weekly newspaper call ...
co-founded WeWork. In 2019 Rebekah Neumann began calling herself a cofounder of WeWork.
According to Vanity Fair at WeWork "she has been known to have people fired, such as a mechanic for WeWork’s Gulfstream jet, within minutes of meeting them because she didn’t like their energy."
In September 2019, after an attempt to take the company public revealed deepening financial issues, it was announced that Rebekah Neumann would step down as CEO of WeGrow and relinquish her role in The We Company.
Rebekah Neumann played a key role in the collapse of the IPO having contributed New Age language in the filing which as a result "read like a novel written by someone who was 'shrooming", according to
Scott Galloway
Scott Robert Galloway (born 25 April 1995) is an Australian professional football (soccer) player who plays as a fullback for Melbourne City in the A-League.
Born in Perth, Galloway played youth football for the Australian Institute of Spor ...
.
She founded WeGrow, a private school in Chelsea, in 2017.
In October 2019, it was announced that the WeGrow school would close at the end of the academic year.
Since the collapse of WeWork and associated companies it has been discovered that Rebekah Neumann played a key role in WeWork’s downfall.
In 2020, Neumann bought back some of WeGrow's assets and started Student of Life for Life (SOLFL).
Personal life
Rebekah and
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i entrepreneur
Adam Neumann
Adam Neumann ( he, אדם נוימן; born April 25, 1979) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor. In 2010, he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey, where he served as CEO from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, he co-founded a family ...
met in New York
and married in 2008.
They have six children.
Neumann has come under criticism for endorsing
pseudosciencific beliefs, such as the idea that meat has emotional memory that can be passed on through consumption.
In popular culture
In the
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
series ''
WeCrashed
''WeCrashed'' is an American drama streaming television miniseries that premiered on Apple TV+ on March 18, 2022. The series stars Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as Adam and Rebekah Neumann, the real-life married couple at the heart of WeWork, ...
'' (2022), Rebekah Neumann is portrayed by
Anne Hathaway
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
.
Filmography
Film
Short Film
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Rebekah
Living people
1978 births
American Jews
American women chief executives
Businesspeople from New York (state)
Cornell University alumni
Horace Mann School alumni
People from Bedford, New York
WeWork people
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesswomen