Gannett appoints Hegde as an independent director

Gannett has named Vinayak Hegde as an independent director to the company’s board of directors.

Hegde took his post on Feb. 15.

“We are excited to welcome Vinayak to our Board,” said Michael Reed, chairman and CEO, Gannett. “He brings significant digital and operational experience to our Board, which will be highly valuable to both our management team and strategy goals. We look forward to having his diverse perspectives as we continue on our transformation journey.”

Currently, Hegde is the president and chief operating officer at Blink Health. He is also a member of the board of directors at LifeVantage Corporation.

Previously, he was CMO, Homes, and VP of Growth at Airbnb. He was also a board member of HigherEducation.com. Hegde has also worked at Groupon, first as VP of computational and growth marketing and then as chief marketing and revenue officer.

He managed the marketing, national sales and revenue management and launched their brand campaigns and growth strategy, which grew to service over 50 million customers worldwide with over 160 million Groupon app downloads.

He also led Groupon’s acquisition of LivingSocial.com, an online marketplace for users to buy and share things to do in their city.

He was also a member of the board of directors at nearbuy.com and was with Amazon for 12 years. He joined as manager global payments services and then served as director, general manager, worldwide marketing.

He has also worked as a senior member, technical staff at Oracle.

Hegde holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India.