After much speculation that the Pandora founder and two-time CEO would step down, Tuesday was the day. As the Board begins its search for a new CEO, CFO Naveen Chopra will step in as interim CEO. Westergren is also out as a Pandora board member. President Mike Herring and CMO Nick Bartle are also gone. Pandora appointed Jason Hirschhorn to fill the vacant seat.
Hirschhorn is the CEO of the ReDEF Group, a digital content curation company that he founded in 2013. Previous to his current position, Hirschhorn served as the Chief Product Officer and Co-President of Myspace and as President of Sling Media. Before Sling Media, Jason was the Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks, where he was responsible for the company’s digital media business and interactive strategy.
Westergren said, “I am incredibly proud of the company we have built. We invented a whole new way of enjoying and discovering music, and in doing so forever changed the listening experience for millions. I came back to the CEO role last year to drive transformation across the business. We accomplished far more than we anticipated. We rebuilt Pandora’s relationships with the music industry, launched a fantastic Premium on-demand service, and brought a host of tech innovations to our advertising business. With these in place, plus a strengthened balance sheet, I believe Pandora is perfectly poised for its next chapter.”
On behalf of Pandora’s board, Roger Faxon, Pandora board member said, “Over the past several weeks, the board has taken a number of steps to refocus and reinforce Pandora. As listeners continue to move from traditional terrestrial radio to more dynamic and flexible offerings, it is the board’s belief that this transition continues to present a massive opportunity, and that Pandora is in an ideal position to capture an increasing share of this audience. With ‘digital radio’ at the core of our business, and both ‘Plus’ and ‘Premium’ as new, integral parts of our arsenal, Pandora now has all of the tools necessary to capitalize on this opportunity. With our comprehensive suite of offerings and a refortified balance sheet, we will be able to more effectively recruit listeners, and we will be able to provide them with more of the content they want and the services they desire in order to better retain them.”
Pandora board member Tim Leiweke said, “On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Tim for his vision and his many years of leadership that have created one of the most recognized brands in streaming music today. Tim stepped in to be CEO at a critical time for the company and was quickly able to reset relations with the major labels, launch our on-demand service, reconstitute the management team and refortify our balance sheet by securing an investment from Sirius XM. We support Tim’s desire to identify a new CEO for Pandora’s next stage.”
“We are also thrilled to welcome Jason Hirschhorn to the board,” said Leiweke. “Jason is a uniquely talented individual who brings highly relevant consumer media experience to our board and will lend valuable counsel as we focus on driving long-term value for our shareholders. With this new addition to the board, as well as our recently announced partnership with Sirius XM and our sale of Ticketfly, we have added significant intellectual and capital resources to Pandora, and we are confident that the company is in a better position than ever to capture an increasing share of the music-listening audience.”
Pandora has a huge ad sales problem too, at least in the Los Angeles region. From the top down in LA, Pandora ad sales is filled with disgruntled former radio management and sales personnel, who weren’t happy at solid companies like CBS, Iheart, and others. They took their bad habits and negativity with them from radio to Pandora. Not a good match at all for Pandora, which needs positive, open-minded and digital focused market management and sales people. You don’t hire those that couldn’t survive in a still vibrant industry like radio, and expect them to successfully lead in a new industry requiring fresh positive thinking.