- Ron Fisher is the Vice Chairman and Head of Investment at SoftBank Group where he oversees the organization's $100 billion Vision Fund.
- Fisher led SoftBank's multiple investments in WeWork, and is part of the startup's all-male board of directors.
- SoftBank, and Fisher by extension, is widely credited with overinflating WeWork's valuation in later stage private funding rounds. At its peak, WeWork was privately valued at $47 billion.
- On Tuesday, the startup announced it was delaying its public offering, which would've valued the company at a heavily discounted $10 billion, indefinitely.
It's not clear if Ron Fisher's billion-dollar gamble will pay off.
The SoftBank executive sits on WeWork's all-male board, having led the Vision Fund's multiple investments in the startup since 2017. As the Vice Chairman and Head of Investment at SoftBank Group, Fisher, 71, is one of the most senior employees overseeing SoftBank's first $100 billion Vision Fund, and the firm's WeWork investment could very well be his legacy.
SoftBank, and Fisher by extension, is widely credited with overinflating WeWork's valuation in later stage private funding rounds. SoftBank first became publicly involved with the New York-based coworking startup in August 2017 after it purchased $1.3 billion worth of shares from a group of undisclosed existing investors. At the time, WeWork was valued at $16.9 billion. That same month, SoftBank led the startup's $1.7 billion Series G, which valued it at $21.2 billion. At its peak, WeWork was privately valued at $47 billion after a $5 billion direct investment from SoftBank.
Read More: The history of WeWork's meteoric valuation rise — and fall
Now, Fisher's investment looks precarious, at best. After pouring billions in private funding into WeWork, the buzzy startup has decided to delay its public offering originally planned for the end of September. Once valued at $47 billion, the startup is now reportedly considering listing at a significantly discounted valuation of around $10 billion.
As one of only six board members, Fisher is in the unique position of knowing what might come next for the beleaguered real estate startup. But he may have sacrificed a lot to get there.
Here is what we know about Fisher, the SoftBank executive who led Vision Fund's controversial investment in WeWork.
According to WeWork's IPO prospectus, Fisher is one of six WeWork board members.
Fisher is also the Vice Chairman of telecommunications company Sprint, which is owned by SoftBank. And he is a director at chip design firm Arm Holdings and sports e-commerce site Fanatics, both SoftBank investments.
Fisher says when SoftBank created the $100 billion Vision Fund with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, it wasn't clear whether there would be enough opportunities.
"Early on, as the idea for the Vision Fund developed, there was a question as to whether we'd find enough companies and founders of the quality and scale we were after," Fisher said in an interview posted on SoftBank's website.
"What we've found is that there are more interesting opportunities than even a fund like ours can possibly support. Our objective is to partner with companies that are transforming industries across the globe, where our resources and people will make a difference for them," he says.
Ron Fisher grew up in South Africa, and received his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
He then moved to New York to get his MBA from Columbia University.
He joined TRW, a high-tech parts manufacturer, in 1976, and eventually became the chief financial officer at the company. He left the position in 1990, and TRW was acquired in 2002.
From 1984 until 1990, Fisher was also the president of Interactive Systems Corporation, a UNIX software company based in Santa Monica, Calif. The company was acquired in 1992 by Kodak.
In 1990, Fisher was recruited to lead Phoenix Technologies, a system software developer for personal computers, as Chairman and CEO. He ran the company until 1994, prior to joining SoftBank.
Ron Fisher joined SoftBank in 1995 to oversee its operations and activities outside of Asia.
He founded SoftBank Capital, the now-dormant investment arm of SoftBank Group, in 1999. He served as managing partner until the group was dissolved in 2015.
He now serves as Vice Chairman and Head of Investment of SoftBank Group, which makes him one of the senior-most executives on the company’s $100 billion Vision Fund.
His biggest investment during his tenure is WeWork, the fast-growing but troubled coworking startup.
He led SoftBank’s massive $1.7 billion Series G investment in WeWork in 2017 and a subsequent $5 billion direct investment in 2019.
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