Audacy welcomes Brian Benedik as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, effective December 1. As a key member of the executive team, Benedik will lead all aspects of revenue generation across corporate, national, regional and local levels and develop fully integrated, multiplatform sales solutions and breakthrough strategies to attract new revenue streams. He will report to Chief Operating Officer Susan Larkin.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Brian to Audacy and our executive leadership team,” said Larkin. “His resume speaks for itself, with key roles at audio publishers like Spotify, iHeart Radio, Audible and Katz Media, where his strategic vision enabled the former to quickly elevate from a newcomer in our industry to a multi-billion dollar leader in the audio streaming space. Brian’s considerable expertise and experience will amplify our revenue generation efforts as Audacy continues its upward trajectory.”
“The audio industry is booming with innovation and consumers are enjoying wonderful content experiences across a number of platforms. The Audacy re-imagination efforts are beyond impressive and the portfolio of assets across radio, streaming, podcast, live events, sports play-by-play and sports betting are best in class. I’m looking forward to working with David Field, Susan Larkin and the Audacy executive team to drive value to marketers and our loyal users.”
Brian Benedik joins Audacy from Niantic, an AR developer platform and real world gaming publisher, where he served as VP/Global Head of Revenue. Prior to Niantic, Benedik spent over 25 years in the over-the-air and digital audio space across a number of global and U.S.-centric organizations. For seven formative years at Spotify, Benedik was a key member of the senior leadership team as SVP/Global Head of Sales and Operations leading a team of over 550 people in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. As the leader of the Spotify Global Advertising Business, Benedik oversaw the direct, programmatic, podcast, re-seller and self-serve platform teams as well as ad and sales operations, trading, global agency and accounts and training groups.
Other previous roles include Founder and President of Katz Digital, President of Christal Radio within the Katz Media Group; and General Sales Manager for WHTZ-FM New York at iHeartMedia. Benedik has held strategic advisory roles for Audible, an Amazon company, and Targetspot, a division of Audio Valley. He is currently a board member at Podcast Tech platform, Sounder.fm, The Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, The American Advertising Federation and PTTOW. Benedik holds degrees from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications and Columbia School of Business’ Continuing Executive Education program.
