IDG Veteran Bob Carrigan Named D&B Chief Exec

Bob Carrigan, the former CEO of media, events and research group IDG Communications Worldwide, has been appointed President and CEO of business information provider D&B (Dun and Bradstreet) from October 7, replacing Sara Mathew who is soon to retire.

D&B provides commercial information and insight on businesses, and its global commercial database contains more than 225 million business records. Earlier this year, the company introduced a product called Hoover's Analytics, to help small business segment and evaluate their customers and prospects, and identify new market opportunities.

Carrigan (pictured) worked at IDG for 26 years, apart from the four-year period between 1999 and 2003 when he served as SVP e-Commerce and Advertising at Internet start-up, Spinner - an IDG portfolio company that was acquired by AOL. After returning to IDG in 2003 as President-CEO of the company's Computerworld, he was promoted to CEO of IDG Communications US in 2005, and took up the overall CEO role in 2008.

At the beginning of next month, he will replace Mathew, the company's current Chairman and CEO, who will continue with D&B until the end of the year, in order to ensure a smooth leadership transition. She joined the company in 2001 as CFO, and has held her current role since 2010. Earlier in her career, she spent eighteen years at Procter & Gamble.

Christopher Coughlin, the firm's current Lead Director and non-executive Chairman, comments: 'Bob quickly emerged as the candidate who would bring a powerful new perspective to our business. His track record of strategic leadership and innovation, combined with his ability to leverage a company's core strengths and assets, uniquely position him to begin a new chapter in D&B's history.'

Web site: www.dnb.com .