CBS said Monday that chief financial officer Fred Reynolds, a 38-year veteran of the broadcaster, will retire effective Aug. 15.
Reynolds will officially retire as CFO on July 20, but will remain an executive vice president of the company, working with CEO Les Moonves and other senior management on the coordination of the transition of his various duties and various other projects before his retirement on Aug. 15.
Deputy CFO Joseph Ianniello will assume the CFO role effective July 20. Ianniello has served as deputy CFO since November 2008. In this new position Ianniello will oversee all financial operations of CBS Corporation. As deputy CFO, he has been responsible for the company's financial strategy across its operations, in addition to worldwide treasury, tax, information systems, technology, corporate development - including mergers & acquisitions - and risk management. Before that Ianniello served as senior vice president, chief development officer and treasurer.
Moonves had high praise for the outgoing executive.
"It is impossible to overstate the contribution that Fred has made to the CBS Corp. through his many years with our company," Moonves said in a prepared statement. "He has guided our Finance division through virtually every major transformative event of the last 15 years, from the acquisition by Westinghouse of CBS in 1995, to our Infinity acquisition the following year, to the Viacom-CBS merger of 2000 and the subsequent launch of CBS Corporation as a stand-alone company in 2006. He has also been instrumental in the many activities that have since cemented our standing as one of the preeminent global media companies."
Reynolds has been executive vice president and CFO of CBS since its separation from Viacom in 2006. Previously, Reynolds served as executive vice president and CFO of the businesses that comprise CBS after the separation and president of the CBS Television Stations Group since 2001. Prior to that, Reynolds served as EVP and CFO of the former Viacom from 2000 to 2001 and served as EVP and CFO of the former CBS and its predecessor, Westinghouse Electric Corp., from 1994 to 2000. Reynolds was Chief Financial Officer of CBS Inc. from April 1996 to 1997.
Prior to his tenure at CBS, Reynolds was named EVP and CFO of Westinghouse Electric Corp. (a predecessor company to CBS) in 1994. He joined Westinghouse from PepsiCo Inc., where he spent 13 years (1981-94) in various financial positions.
