Bluetooth Special Interest Group hires Mark Powell, Kineto Wireless, as executive director … Kalpak Gude left associate general counsel position at Intelsat … Qualcomm names Anand Chandrasekher, ex-Intel, chief marketing officer … Cowen Group hires John Blackledge, ex-Credit Suisse, as director and senior research analyst covering Internet and new media … SeaChange International board adds Steve Craddock, Del Ray Group … Gannett hires Emma Gilding, ex-Omnicom, as vice president-brand research and strategy … Cox Enterprises adds Neil Campbell, ex-Americold Logistics, as assistant vice president-financial planning and analysis … Lobbyist Registrations: New Arcadian Networks, Faegre Baker Daniels, effective July 1.
White House says Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein is departing … Named to FCC 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee: Scott Blake Harris, Neustar, chairman; Diane Cornell, Inmarsat, vice chairman; Alex Roytblat, agency’s International Bureau Strategic Analysis and Negotiations Division, designated federal official to the panel … FTC appointments: Andrew Gavil, ex-Howard University School of Law, named director of Office of Policy Planning, replacing Susan DeSanti, who moved to San Francisco and agency’s Western regional office; Steven Bellovin, ex-Columbia University, named chief technologist, replacing Edward Felten, returning to Princeton University; and Richard Brunell, ex-American Antitrust Institute (AAI), named senior adviser for competition matters, with the hires effective Sept. 4; until then OPP Deputy Director Tara Isa Koslov is acting OPP director; William Efron promoted to director of Northeast regional office … At AAI, Senior Counsel Randy Stutz promoted to also head its amicus program in absence of Brunell; and Sandeep Vaheesan elevated to special counsel … Disney promotes Peter Seymour to executive vice president-chief financial officer, Disney/ABC Television Group, new position.
E.W. Scripps Co. elects Anne La Dow, great-great-granddaughter of the company’s founder, to board, succeeding John Burlingame, whose retirement took effect Thursday … Cisco board adds Marc Benioff, salesforce.com, and Kristina Johnson, Enduring Hydro … Internet2 names Susannah Spellman, ex-Booz Allen Hamilton, as executive director of U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network.
Q2 media results (compared to year-ago quarter): Scripps Networks Interactive sales rose 13 percent to $601 million from the year-ago quarter. Revenue at the cable programmer’s Cooking Channel and DIY Network had “very strong double digit growth both in viewership and in revenues,” Chairman Kenneth Lowe said in an earnings release (http://xrl.us/bni6hf). “We set a company record this year for advance advertising sales and reached an important distribution agreement that will make our content easily and widely accessible to millions of consumers on tablets and other mobile platforms.” Income from continuing operations rose 6.8 percent to $142 million. Scripps shares closed up 4.5 percent to $56.17 on Thursday. ... WWE sales were little changed at $141.6 million as operating income fell 6.7 percent to $19.6 million. There were “expenses incurred in conjunction with our potential network,” the cable programmer said (http://xrl.us/bni6hu). ... Radio One sales rose 9.1 percent to $105.9 million “giving effect to the consolidation of TV One,” and “core radio revenue” rose 6.5 percent, the company said (http://xrl.us/bm55g3). Cash flow from the TV One cable network and from radio stations rose 19 percent to $41.4 million, and profit fell 57 percent to $42.7 million.
Fisher Communications promotes Jenny Kuglin to Fisher Interactive Network general manager … Martha Stewart Living hires Patricia DiPette, ex-Elie Tahari Ltd., as senior vice president-licensing … Lobbyist Registrations: SAG-AFTRA, representing itself, effective April 1.
NBCUniversal hires Sal Mendoza, ex-Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, as vice president-diversity & inclusion … Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies hires John Horrigan, ex-TechNet, to head Media and Technology Institute … Video encoding company Sorenson Media promotes Mitchell Holyoak to head its Salt Lake City office and oversee Sorenson Squeeze and Squeeze Server development teams.
Vodafone appointments after buying Cable & Wireless Worldwide (see item above): Named CEO of Vodafone Global Enterprise is Jan Geldmacher, promoted; to CWW directors are Diego Galli for finance; John Thompson for technology; Francesco Bianco for HR; and Mark Allison for integration … Michael Copps, ex-FCC commissioner, named by Common Cause to head its new Media Democracy and Reform Initiative, temporarily giving up position on organization’s board … Neustar hires Kim Hart, ex-Politico, as director-corporate communications, effective Aug. 6 … CBS Interactive China names Daisy Wei, ex-Han Kun Law Offices, director-legal, first CBS Corp. in-house counsel hired in that country … Young Broadcasting promotes Bob Peterson to vice president-station operations for broadcast group … ObjectVideo hires Warren Brown, ex-Tyco, as president … OMG Plc’s 2d3 Sensing says it starts U.S. board “to mitigate the effects of Foreign Ownership Control and Influence on United States Government work": Members are Jon Damush, 2d3 Sensing; Nicholas Bolton and David Deacon, both OMG Plc; and independent directors Leo Hazlewood, ex-SAIC and Central Intelligence Agency; Lawrence Meador, ex-Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and James Peak, Red Arch Solutions.
Viacom promotes Jamie Drew to Nickelodeon Group senior vice president-strategy and business development …DirecTV hires Fazal Merchant, ex-Royal Bank of Scotland, as senior vice president and treasurer.
Broadcast earnings: Fiscal Q4 sales at Meredith’s local media group gained 8.8 percent from a year earlier to $84.7 million, the company said. Political ad sales of $3.2 million, compared to $738,000 a year earlier, helped results. Operating profit at the local media group gained 43 percent on higher sales and lower expenses … Journal Communications' Q2 broadcast sales increased 18.4 percent from a year earlier to $54.5 million. Operating profit at the broadcast division gained 57.4 percent to $13.1 million, it said. Political ad sales and retransmission consent revenue helped results at its TV stations while radio revenue also benefitted from political ads, it said.
Clearwire adds ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., to board … Business Roundtable hires Elizabeth Gasster, ex-Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, as vice president of information & technology and regulatory reform … Cincinnati Bell’s CyrusOne cloud company hires Scott Brueggeman, ex-CoreLink Data Centers, as chief marketing officer … Harris Corp. names Robert Duffy, ex-United Technologies Corp., senior vice president of human resources and administration; succeeding Jeff Shuman, leaving to pursue other opportunities … Charles Lesko, ex-CSR, named Entropic vice president-worldwide sales, replacing Bill Bradford, named Minco Technology Labs CEO in January … BlackArrow cable ad technology vendor names director Michael Pohl, ex-C-COR, chairman, replacing Larry Kramer, Gannett, who remains a board member … Harmonic moves: Peter Alexander, ex-Cisco, hired as senior vice president-chief marketing officer; Krishnan Padmanabhan, ex-NetApp, becomes senior vice president-video products; Nimrod Ben-Natan to run Edge and Access business as senior vice president-general manager; Mitzi Reaugh, Miramax, added to board … Disney promotes Caroline Foy Welch, to president-general manager of WTVD-TV Durham, N.C. … Intelsat elects Edward Kangas, ex-Deloitte Touche, to board … Fisher Communications elevates Don Pratt to vice president-general manager of Boise, Idaho, TV stations KBOI and KYUU.