The embattled office-sharing firm WeWork will be getting a new CEO later this month in the form of real estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani. The Softbank-backed company announced on Saturday that it has already contracted Mathrani to become its new chief executive starting on February 28.

The real estate industry veteran will be reporting directly to the company's executive chairman, Marcelo Claure. The company mentioned in a statement that during the transition period, co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham will remain to ensure a smooth onboarding process. Mathrani will be directly replacing Gunningham.

Mathrani was formerly the CEO of Brookfield Properties' retail group. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of various real estate firms, including Vornado Realty Trust.

The decision to hire Mathrani was made by the company's current board of directors without any assistance from third-party head hunters. According to sources close to the matter, the board initially considered hiring an external executive search firm for its CEO search but later voted against it.

WeWork began its CEO search back in November of last year, following the controversial exit of its co-founder Adam Neumann. The company was also caught in the middle of a major disaster following the postponement of its planned initial public offering. To the dismay of both investors and stakeholders, WeWork officially withdrew its S-1 filing in September and announced that it would be postponing its IPO.

Neumann had drawn major criticism over his erratic management style, questionable tenure, and how he handled the funds that were provided to his company by SoftBank. In October of last year, Software gave Neumann a $1.7 billion golden parachutes for him to step down from WeWork's board and sever his ties with the company.

On top of the massive offer, Neumann reportedly still received an annual salary of $46 million for being a consultant. Industry experts have called the entire ordeal as one of the biggest implosions in the history of startups, costing investors and major stakeholders billions of dollars in losses.

At its peak, WeWork had a market valuation of around $47 billion. Now the company is worth less than $8 billion.

With Mathrani's entry in the company, shareholders are hoping that he could use his years of real estate experience to turn the company around. While Mathrani may not be able to immediately undo the damage done by Neumann, he is expected to at least slowly steer the company to its eventual recovery.