Three New Divisions, Multiple Departures for Nielsen

Nielsen is restructuring its business into three global business units, according to online publication AdAge: Nielsen Audience Measurement, Nielsen Analytics and Gracenote. Current COO Karthik Rao will become CEO of the first of these.

Five of the firm's senior managers will leave the business, including Chief Data and Research Officer Mainak Mazumdar, who has been involved in the creation of the firm's single cross-media solution, Nielsen One and who joined the company in 2016, after senior positions at Simulmedia, GfK and Comscore. Nielsen CEO David Kenny (pictured) says Mazumdar has left in search of 'more of a pure research role'.

Also leaving are Chief Commercial Officer Peter Bradbury; Chief Growth Officer and President of International Sean Cohan; Chief Product Officer Eric Bosco; and Chief People Officer Laurie Lovett. Kenny said the execs decided to leave because their company-wide roles were no longer available and they weren't interested in taking positions with the three new business units. However, an AdAge source claimed that Nielsen's recent sale to a private equity consortium had resulted in 'substantial pay-outs' for senior managers, providing those leaving with an opportunity to 'seek new roles outside the company'.

Kenny confirmed that two execs will fill Mazumdar's role. Pete Doe, who is currently Head of Research at Microsoft's data-enabled tech platform Xandr, and previously served as Chief Research Officer at TV ad platform clypd and SVP Data Science at Nielsen, will become Chief Research Officer of Nielsen Audience Measurement, reporting to Rao. Christine Pierce, currently Nielsen's SVP of US Media Operations and former SVP of Data Science, will take on the other part of Mazumdar's role, leading the Global Data Solutions group, which is responsible for managing inbound data, including both from panels and big data sets such as set-top boxes and smart TVs.

Nielsen Analytics will be led by Tina Wilson, who currently serves as Global Head of Audience Outcomes Product. In the position of Group General Manager, she will support general managers of six businesses within the division: campaign impact analytics, marketing mix modeling, marketing cloud, NCS, Scarborough, and Sports Fan Insights & Sponsorship Analytics. Gracenote, which compiles media and entertainment data, will be led by Sujit Das Munshi, currently Chief Content Officer and Head of Operations.

Web site: www.nielsen.com .