SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund loses COO, four partners
1 min read 03 Nov 2020, 10:44 AM ISTNeil Hadley, who’s also chief of staff to Vision Fund Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Misra, will take on the COO role in addition to his current duties
PremiumSoftBank Vision Fund’s Chief Operating Officer Ruwan Weerasekera has retired, the latest in a spate of departures at the almost $100 billion vehicle.
The 54-year-old managing partner’s departure was confirmed by SoftBank spokesman Andrew Kovacs. Neil Hadley, who’s also chief of staff to Vision Fund Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Misra, will take on the COO role in addition to his current duties.
Weerasekera joins several executives who’ve left in recent days and an ongoing spate of resignations this year. The fund -- which has 53 senior team members according to its website -- has had to come to terms with high-profile losses at some of its largest portfolio companies, including Uber Technologies Inc., WeWork and hotel- and apartment-booking startup Oyo Hotels.
Penny Bodle, a partner who headed investor relations, has also departed, Kovacs confirmed. Avi Golan, an operating partner, has left to become CEO of artificial intelligence software maker AnyVision, the company said in a statement last week. U.K. Chief Risk Officer Maria Khan left in September, according to her LinkedIn page and confirmed by a spokesman.
Investing partners Ted Fike and Justin Wilson resigned to join Alec Gores’s eponymous Gores Group as senior managing directors, focusing on the firm’s special purpose acquisitions companies, or SPACs, effort, Kovacs said. Axios reported Fike and Wilson’s new roles on Sunday.
Vision Fund employees have described the company culture as one that rewards aggression and recklessness, a characterization the firm has disputed, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in December. Carolina Brochado, one of the few women in upper management at the fund, gave her notice in April, a month after she was made partner. Brochado’s promotion was meant to fill one of the gaps left by a previous round of departures.
