WeWork's head of enterprise sales is out, leaving a role that's key to the coworking giant's turnaround plan vacant

• WeWork's head of enterprise sales has left the company, Business Insider has learned.
• Grant McGrail spent three years at WeWork.
• Working with major companies rather than freelancers and entrepreneurs is a key growth area for WeWork as the company seeks more stable revenue sources.
• Last year, WeWork came in under target for enterprise desks in North America, according to internal data obtained by Business Insider in January.
• Click here for more WeWork stories.

Grant McGrail, WeWork's head of enterprise sales, has abruptly departed after three years, Business Insider has learned.

McGrail joined WeWork in April 2017, per his LinkedIn profile, just as the office company was shifting from its original focus - freelance and entrepreneur tenants - to big companies, which can write bigger, more consistent checks.

Based in San Francisco, McGrail, the senior vice president of account sales and strategic alliances, led a business whose clients include Slack, Oscar, and Glassdoor.

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Before WeWork, McGrail spent a year as a senior director of sales for Oracle, and previously was at NetSuite, which was acquired by Oracle, for eight years.

McGrail did not respond to a request for comment. A WeWork spokeswoman confirmed his departure and declined further comment.

Enterprise is a major growth focus

WeWork calls companies with more than 500 employees enterprise clients, and its list of customers includes giants like IBM and BlackRock.

Overall, enterprise accounted for 264,000 of WeWork's third-quarter memberships, or 43% of the total - up from 34% a year ago - per investor documents reviewed by Business Insider.

Last year, WeWork came in under target for enterprise desks in North America, according to internal data obtained by Business Insider in January. The company's global 2019 numbers should be available to investors next month.

In 2019, WeWork added 108,000 new desks for enterprise clients in North America, representing 73% of the target. Though WeWork fell short of its enterprise desk goal, the company recorded $1.9 billion in "committed revenue" - noncancelable contracts that will turn into revenue - which represented 113% of the target.

Since October, WeWork, under SoftBank chief operating officer Marcelo Claure's leadership as chairman, has been restructuring its business. In the late fall, Claure fired employees who didn't follow company policy and created a five-year turnaround plan.

He's also reassured enterprise clients that WeWork is stable. On Thursday, he highlighted pharmaceutical giant Merck's new WeWork outpost in Philadelphia.

Next up is new leadership. SoftBank tapped Sandeep Mathrani as CEO. Mathrani last led mall giant GGP as a disciplined, operationally-focused leader. He starts on Tuesday.

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