Measurement company Comscore promoted its CFO, Jon Carpenter to CEO, succeeding Bill Livek, who announced plans to retire earlier this year.
At the same time, former GroupM chairman Irwin Gotlieb said he was leaving Comscore’s board. GroupM was an investor in Comscore, a competitor to Nielsen.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Comscore said Gotlieb’s resignation was “not as a result of any disagreement with the company known to an executive officer of the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, practices or policies.”
Comscore also named Nana Banerjee nonexecutive chairman. Banerjee had been on the board since March 2021. Banerjee succeeds Brent Rosenthal, chairman since 2018, who continues as lead director. Mary Margaret Curry was promoted to CFO and treasurer. She had been chief accounting officer.
The changes come at a time when the media industry is looking for alternatives to Nielsen and measurement companies are racing to create better ways to measure an increasingly complex video ecosystem.
Comscore is one of the companies whose data is being tested as possible currency for buying and selling advertising by companies including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Horizon Media is also testing Comscore data to see if it can be used as currency for local TV ad buys.
After a three-year period in which it had to dig its way out from a re-audit resulting from issues found in its financial reports that led to fraud charges, management turnover, falling revenue and losses, Comscore recapitalized early last year, drawing investments from Charter Communications, Qurate and Cerberus Funds that wiped out its debt.
Before becoming Comscore’s CFO in November 2021, Carpenter had been with NBCUniversal, Nielsen and Publishers Clearing House. He worked for Sears Holdings and started his career at General Electric.
“Jon’s strong operational focus, strategic acumen, and experience driving both growth and profitability are exactly what we need for Comscore’s next chapter,“ Banerjee said. ”In addition to his background in finance, as well as in media and measurement sectors, Jon brings a customer-centric ethos. I am excited for and confident in Comscore’s future under Jon’s leadership. Along with the rest of the board, I am committed to working with Jon and the rest of the management team to help accelerate Comscore’s growth trajectory and achieve its full potential.” ■
