Discovery Communications said its global direct-to-consumer CEO Peter Faricy has resigned, effective July 15. His role will be assumed by three current Discovery executives, chief technology officer, direct-to-consumer Avi Saxena; president U.S. Digital and Product Marketing Karen Leever; and group SVP, Content and Commercial Strategy, direct-to-consumer Lisa Holme.
Faricy joined Discovery in August 2018 from Amazon, where he led the online retailers Amazon marketplace third party seller business. At Discovery, he was in charge of its Discovery’s direct-to-consumer streaming efforts, including Discovery GO TV Everywhere products, as well as Motor Trend, Eurosport Player, Discovery Kids, Dplay, and Discovery’s strategic alliance with PGA Tour.
In a memo to employees, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Faricy decided to leave the company to be closer to his family.
“After a few months of discussions, Peter Faricy has decided that now is the right time to leave Discovery,” Zaslav said according to the memo. “I want to thank Peter for all of his hard work, and contributions which have allowed us to make meaningful progress. But I also recognize, and am grateful for, his personal sacrifices over the last 2 years, much of which he has spent away from his family in Seattle. Peter has decided that time with his family will come first once travel starts up again.”
Zaslav added that effective immediately, Saxena, who is currently in charge of global technology at Discovery, will add responsibility for Food Network Kitchen and the Magnolia direct-to-consumer strategy. Leever,who heads up content and commercial strategy, will also be responsible for Discovery’s app strategy in the U.S and U.K. and Holme, who heads up Content and Commercial Strategy, will have responsibility for content and programming strategies around its aggregated app as well as its partnership strategy.
Discovery International CEO JB Perrette will also assume oversight for Dplay and all of Discovery;s sports DTC offerings, as well as MotorTrend, according to the memo. Dplay International general manager Win Kolasastraseni, Discovery Golf Group president and GM Alex Kaplan and Motor Trend Group global president and GM Alex Wellen will report directly to Perrette, effective immediately.
