The Weather Channel Companies have named David Kenny as chairman and chief executive officer. He succeeds Mike Kelly, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2009.
Kelly will serve as a special adviser to TWCC’s CEO and board of directors, and as an adviser to Bain Capital.
TWCC is owned jointly by Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group and NBC Universal. The Weather Channel is a 50 percent owner of Pelmorex Inc., the Canadian company that owns The Weather Network and Meteo Media.
Kenny (pictured) joined TWCC having most recently been president of Akamai. Previously, he co-founded and served as managing partner of VivaKi, the combined worldwide media and digital arm of Publicis Groupe, and was chairman and chief executive officer at integrated brand agency Digitas Inc. Kenny currently serves as member of the board of directors of Yahoo Inc. and a director of the nonprofit Teach for America.
TWCC is a quiet success story of the digital media world, having been one of the first traditional media companies to embrace emerging technologies. It now reaches 163 million people with weather news and information, 110 million of whom it connects with on multiple platforms. The Weather Channel website receives 62 million unique users each month and 11 million per day, and its mobile platform handles 33 million monthly unique users. An additional 94 million monthly viewers watch the channel on cable.
TWCC ownership issued a statement welcoming Kenny, and and another in which it expressed its gratitude to Kelly for achieving record revenue and profitability, revitalizing the company’s original TV programming and “establishing the company as a mobile leader.”
Related links:
Press release – http://tinyurl.com/7fftzkc
