CNBC Chairman Mark Hoffman is stepping down from his post, effective September 12, he said in a note to staffers Tuesday.
Hoffman, who was named president of the business news network in 2005, said he is staying on with the company to help with the transition.
KC Sullivan is becoming president of CNBC. Sullivan has been with NBCUniversal for 13 years and most recently spent the last two years as president and managing director of NBCU Global Advertising and Partnerships based in London.
Hoffman brought Sullivan to CNBC in 2009 to serve as CNBC's CFO and later appointed him president and managing director of CNBC International where he spent seven years running the international business.
CNBC’s was troubled at the start, with notable figures in its early history including David Zaslav, now CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery and Roger Ailes, who went on to launch Fox News and Fox Business Network.
“Once defined as a moribund domestic cable channel that many thought would never fully recover from the dotcom bubble bursting, CNBC is today a global multimedia powerhouse, punching far above its weight, in the digital age,” Hoffman said in his memo.
“We are in the business of business so it’s important to note we’ve never been more profitable, setting record after record in financial performance, year after year, as we maneuvered through economic cycles, exogenous events and the historic secular change that accompanied the information age," he said.
Hoffman first joined CNBC in 1997 after stints as general manager of KNDL-TV, St. Louis; VP news of KNBC-TV, Los Angeles and news director at WBBM-TV, Chicago and WAGA-TV, Atlanta.
He served as VP and managing editor of CNBC and acting president and general manager of CNBC Europe before leaving in 2001 to be president and GM of NBC’s WVIT-TV in Hartford. He returned to CNBC in 2005. He was named chairman in 2015.
“I’m humbled and grateful to have had this time with all of you and so proud of what we have done together,” Hoffman said. “No matter where life takes me, professionally and personally, I’ll be rooting for CNBC!” ■
