Karthik Rao
We learn from Inside Radio and The Wall Street Journal that Nielsen has changed leadership. David Kenny steps down from the CEO chair, and veteran Nielsen exec Karthik Tao takes over.
Kenny remains involved as executive chairman. He has been with Nielsen since 2018, following executive roles at Best Buy, IBM, The Weather Company, and Yahoo!.
“This isn’t a trial period,” Kenny told WSJ. “I serve [Karthik Rao] because he asked me to,” Kenny clarified.
The change comes a week after Nielsen terminated about 1,300 positions in a 9% layoff in its 15,000-head staff. (RAIN coverage HERE.)
Nielsen is best known for its audience measurement solutions across TV and audio, and also offers media planning, marketing optimization, and owns the Gracenote database of music metadata.
