A slew of top executives at the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund have recently hit the exits.
The fund’s chief operating officer, a partner who headed up investor relations, an operating partner and two investing partners have all left the investment operation, Bloomberg reports.
The spate of departures at the fund – which made a name for itself backing Uber Technologies, the Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi Chuxing and struggling office-share giant WeWork – comes amid reports of disenchantment with a corporate culture that “rewards aggression and recklessness,” the news service reported, citing a Bloomberg Businessweek report from December.
Ruwan Weerasekera, 54, the fund’s chief operating officer and a managing partner, has retired, according to Bloomberg, citing a SoftBank spokesman.
The partner who headed investor relations, Penny Bodle, has also left the fund, as well as an operating partner Avi Golan, who took a new job as chief executive of artificial intelligence software maker AnyVision.
Ted Fike and Justin Wilson, two investing partners, have handed in their resignations in order to work on special purpose acquisition companies for the Gores Group as senior managing directors, according to Bloomberg.
Shortly after she was promoted to partner, Carolina Brochado also gave her notice, the news service noted.
The resignations – or Weerasekera’s, at least – will lead to a promotion of sorts for Neil Hadley, who is chief of staff to Vision Fund Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Misra. Hadley will take on the COO role in addition to his current duties, according to Bloomberg.
In May, SoftBank posted a record-breaking $18 billion loss. The majority of those losses – $10 billion – came from Vision Fund’s investments in WeWork and Uber.
Over the spring, SoftBank also played a role in fueling the rise of the tech sector, spending more than $4 billion on shares of tech giants like Amazon, The Wall Street Journal reported.
