Business News
R.H. Donnelley Names George F. Bednarz Executive Vice President of Enterprise Sales and Operations
Monday 23. June 2008 - President and COO Peter J. McDonald Announces Retirement
R.H. Donnelley (NYSE:RHD), a leading print and online local search company, today announced the appointment of George F. Bednarz to executive vice president of enterprise sales and operations. In this new role, Bednarz will oversee the activities of all sales and operations functions for the company. Bednarz will continue to be based at the company’s Cary, N.C. headquarters and report directly to R.H. Donnelley Chairman and CEO, David C. Swanson. The appointment, which will be effective immediately, follows the decision by Peter J. McDonald, R.H. Donnelley’s president and chief operating officer, to retire from the company effective September 1, 2008.
“As a part of the company’s succession plan, Peter and I have been transitioning an increasing amount of the operating responsibilities to George over the past two years,” said Swanson. “With Peter’s decision to retire in September, we will now transition responsibility for sales to George as well.”
Bednarz has served as senior vice president of enterprise operations since January of 2008. Prior to assuming this position, Bednarz directed the creation of RHDi, the company’s online local search solutions unit. This division is responsible for the company’s consumer search site, its Dex(R) Search Marketing business, and Business.com, the leading B2B search engine and ad network. In addition, Bednarz has led customer-facing and operational divisions at R.H. Donnelley since joining the company more than 13 years ago, including corporate strategy, publishing, information technology, customer care, billing, credit and collections.
“George’s strategic focus, collaborative management style and deep understanding of all aspects of our business, make him the perfect choice to lead our sales and operations teams into this important next chapter of our company’s transformation,” said Swanson.
Prior to joining R.H. Donnelley, Bednarz worked with The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, where he held executive positions of increasing responsibility from 1976 to 1995 in telephone call center operations, marketing database management, customer service, information technology and strategic planning. Bednarz holds an M.B.A. from Duke University and a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.
McDonald, a 35-year Yellow Pages industry veteran and former Donnelley board member, rejoined the R.H. Donnelley management team in September 2002 when Swanson appointed him to lead the newly acquired Sprint Yellow Page business.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better business partner than Peter to help build R.H. Donnelley into the company it is today. On behalf of the entire organization I would like to thank Peter for his dedication and commitment and wish him all the best going forward,” Swanson added.
“I retire feeling extremely fortunate to have spent 35 years in an industry that I have loved. It has been fun, challenging, rewarding and very fulfilling,” said McDonald. “I leave with the comfort that RHD is very well positioned for the future and I want to thank Dave, the Board, and the many people that I’ve worked with for all of their efforts and support.”
Helping Local Businesses Reach More Customers
R.H. Donnelley’s interactive offerings are essential to its Triple Play(TM) solution suite — an integrated set of products and services that efficiently and effectively extend the marketing reach of local businesses. Spanning multiple media platforms — print Yellow Pages directories, DexKnows.com search site and the major search engines (e.g. Yahoo!(R) and Google(R) via the Company’s Dex(R) Search Marketing tools — Triple Play delivers local businesses’ advertisements to a wider set of ready-to-buy consumers.