Miguel McKelvey

McKelvey grew up in a "five-mother collective" in Eugene, Oregon.[3] His family started and ran a weekly newspaper called the Eugene Weekly.[4]

In a January 2020 interview with Fortune, McKelvey called himself "a wild kid" on the high school basketball court and he found a sense of accountability from his coach, who was a strict disciplinarian. He said of Coach Stepp, "I didn’t grow up with my father, so I never had someone telling me to keep in line."[5]

He graduated from South Eugene High School in 1992.[6][7] He first attended Colorado College and, after seeing a sculpture he created, his professor, Carl Reed, recommended he consider architecture for graduate school.[8][9]  He transferred to the University of Oregon where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1999.[10][11][8]

McKelvey played on the Oregon Ducks basketball team for two years.[12] However, the official record book indicates he lettered for only one year, 1997. [13]

Early on, McKelvey was involved in the early-stage development of several companies, including Green Desk, Barre3, and Versation.[14][11] Before graduating from college, McKelvey worked as a busboy in a restaurant, and spent two summers at an Alaskan fish processing plant.[9]

After graduating from college, McKelvey went to Tokyo to visit a friend, and while there, he co-founded English, baby!, a web portal and social network for students to create and take foreign-language online courses.[15] The website offers vocabulary quizzes, grammar lessons, and a social network that connects English-language learners with English-fluent peers.[16][6] The business grew to 25 employees.[1]

McKelvey next moved to New York City, where he worked at Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture.[16][17] The firm was responsible for all the American Apparel projects, and McKelvey became the manager of the international retail roll out.[18][19]

Adam Neumann worked in the same office building, and the two met at a party.[19][20][21]  In 2008, the two convinced their landlord to let them divide the floors of an empty building into semi-communal offices and rent them out;[21] this was the start of Green Desk.[20]  McKelvey designed the name, logo, and a working website for the new business in one night.[21] Green Desk was an eco-friendly coworking space, with a focus on recycled furniture and wind-power electricity.[8] McKelvey and Neumann eventually sold the business to their landlord, Joshua Guttman, and evolved the concept into WeWork.[22][23][20]

WeWork was founded in 2010, and the first office space was in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo.[24] McKelvey serves as WeWork's chief culture officer.[16][25] He directs construction, architecture, and web design for the company, and is also responsible for building and operating culture.[26][27]  Since 2010, The We Company has launched several new ventures: WeLive, a co-living venture;[28] Rise by We, a luxury gym concept;[29] and WeGrow, a private elementary school.[30] In 2019, the company introduced The We Company, a parent brand that comprises WeWork, WeLive, WeGrow, and other ventures.[31]

In 2017, McKelvey was named WeWork’s chief culture officer and in 2019,[2][32][33] Fast Company named McKelvey one of its Most Creative People.[22]

He was married to Hiyam McKelvey, a former investment banker born in Detroit, before their divorce in 2017.[34][35]