Dhruv Prasad will resign from his position as Co-CEO of Townsquare Media on January 31, 2019.
Prasad, who has been with the company since its launch in 2010, served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations and Executive Vice President of Live Events prior to rising to his current position in October 2017.
Bill Wilson, who rose from Executive Vice President and Chief Content & Digital Officer to Co-CEO with Prasad, will take over as sole Chief Executive Officer. Wilson joined Townsquare Media in 2010 after nine years in multiple executive roles at AOL. Wilson has also served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing at Bertelsmann Music Group.
Some of Prasad’s duties will be split between Chief Financial Officer Stuart Rosenstein and Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Claire Yenicay.
Townsquare Media, Inc. announced today the departure of its Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Dhruv Prasad, who has resigned from his positions as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, effective January 31, 2019. Mr. Prasad co-founded Townsquare in 2010 and served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations and Executive Vice President, Live Events before being appointed Co-Chief Executive Officer in 2017. Bill Wilson will transition from Co-Chief Executive Officer to serve as the sole Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
“I want to thank Dhruv for his contributions to Townsquare over his longstanding tenure, and in particular, his partnership over the past year as Co-CEO. Together, we were able to reorient Townsquare to focus on our “Local First” strategy, and successfully rationalize our non-local businesses,” said Mr. Wilson. “I look forward to continuing this strategy, which has driven strong local growth in 2018, particularly within our digital businesses, and solidified our position as the premier local advertising and marketing solutions company in the heartland of America.”
Steven Price, the Company’s Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, added, “We thank Dhruv for his hard work and contribution in building the Company over nearly a decade and for his leadership over the last year as Co-Chief Executive Officer, a period in which we reset our strategy on our core local mission and delivered financial results that were at the top of the industry. We wish him the very best as he embarks on his next chapter.”
“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished since founding Townsquare in 2010,” said Mr. Prasad. “From scratch, we created not only the nation’s third-largest radio broadcaster, but also built new, profitable businesses in live events and digital. With the Company on strong footing and in the hands of an outstanding senior management team, it’s time for me to move on to my next challenge.”
Mr. Wilson, Stuart Rosenstein, Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer, and Claire Yenicay, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, will assume the management responsibilities Mr. Prasad held over the past year.
Mr. Wilson joined Townsquare in September 2010 and was appointed Co-Chief Executive Officer in October 2017. Prior to his appointment, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Content & Digital Officer of the Company. Previously, Mr. Wilson was President of AOL Media from 2006 to May 2010 where he had overall responsibility for the Company’s global content strategy. In his nine years at AOL, he also served in a number of roles including President, AOL Programming & Studios and Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. Under his leadership, AOL’s content sites grew to reach more than 75 million monthly unique visitors domestically and over 150 million worldwide. Prior to joining AOL in 2001, Mr. Wilson served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing at Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), which he joined in 1992, and was responsible for worldwide marketing including artist, digital and non-traditional marketing across more than 50 countries for the world’s biggest artists including Whitney Houston, Dave Matthews Band, Outkast and Santana. Mr. Wilson graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in business management and earned a M.B.A. with honors in finance and marketing from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Management.
