Business News
Tribune Appoints Gerry Spector As Chief Operating Officer
Friday 11. December 2009 - CFO Chandler Bigelow Expands Duties Nils Larsen Named Chief Investment Officer
Tribune Company today announced the appointment of Gerry Spector as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. Spector, who has served as Tribune’s Chief Administrative Officer since December 2007, will now oversee the company’s internet, broadcasting and newspaper operations.
“Gerry has led the ongoing transformation of this company from top to bottom,” said Randy Michaels, Tribune’s Chief Executive Officer. “He’s strategically refocused the operations of our business units so that we’re more innovative and more efficient than ever before, he’s streamlined the decision-making process and he’s helped drive the reorganization of our sales operation. From the beginning, Gerry’s been a great partner for me.”
During the past two years Tribune has redesigned all of its newspapers, increased local broadcast news programming, expanded the market share of its TV stations, grown the audience of WGN America by almost 40%, begun rebuilding its sales organization, and reduced expenses by approximately $600 million.
“We’ve accomplished a lot, but we can do even more,” said Spector. “This is a great company, with outstanding brands and talented employees. We plan to reinvent our media organization every day–we’re committed to delivering high-quality content, providing innovative solutions to our advertisers and competing for every available dollar.”
The company also announced that SVP/Chief Financial Officer Chandler Bigelow is expanding his responsibilities to include the financial operations of the publishing division and all centralized human resources operations. Bigelow has been with Tribune since 1998 and served as SVP/CFO since March 2008.
Finally, Tribune has named Nils Larsen as Chief Investment Officer effective immediately. Larsen will oversee company-wide business development and investment opportunities. Larsen joined the company in December 2008 and has been responsible for helping spearhead Tribune’s restructuring efforts.