Business power couples have received a bad rap lately. WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and his wife, cofounder and “strategic thought partner” Rebekah, appeared to encourage each other’s eccentricities. Mrs Neumann reportedly demanded employees with “bad energy” be sacked. Both are now stepping down from executive roles.
Investors want bosses to work together, not live together. Elizabeth O’Connell recently switched jobs at UK-listed litigation funder Burford after criticism from a US short-seller. Muddy Waters saw O’Connell’s combined role — finance director and wife to CEO Christopher Bogart — as a governance failing. Vernon Hill, cofounder of struggling Metro Bank, took flak for contracting wife Shirley’s business to design its wildly overspecified branches .