Bloomberg Media hires chief product officer

Scott Havens, Bloomberg Media’s global head of digital, sent out the following announcement:

All,

Our collective efforts in 2017 set us on a path of expansion this year. As we leverage our momentum, we’re focused on accelerating growth through industry-leading innovation and our relentless emphasis on operational execution.

Last year, the team achieved remarkable gains in revenue and audience engagement with digital advertising revenue rising 26% and our monthly unique user traffic growing more than 26%. More than 50% of our ad revenue now comes from digital. We also launched tent pole initiatives in 2017 to reach new audiences including TicToc by Bloomberg, which has grown to over 120,000 followers on Twitter.

As we begin 2018 with an optimistic outlook, Justin has outlined how Bloomberg Media has an opportunity to further cement its position as the world’s leading global business media company. To help us achieve this goal, the digital teams are focused on six core themes that we believe are critical for our future: data and personalization; connected devices; user experience; paid content; OTT video; and international.

With our 2018 digital strategy in place, I’m thrilled to announce new appointments and expanded roles. Julia Beizer is joining us today as global chief product officer for Bloomberg digital and media distribution. In this newly created position, Julia will be responsible for accelerating innovation across our digital product portfolio. Working with key stakeholders across the newsroom, media distribution, engineering, and our commercial organization, Julia will lead our ambitious product vision and strategy across our owned and operated platforms and our media distribution partners.

Julia joins us from Oath, where she most recently served as Vice President of Product in the media division, working across the portfolio on a variety of mobile initiatives. Previously, she was head of product, design and engineering for HuffPost, leading the organization’s recent redesign and rebrand. Before that, she spent a decade at The Washington Post working on both news and product. Julia has emerged as a true thought leader in digital media and is passionate about creating engaging user experiences, building innovative products, and driving operational efficiency. We are very lucky to have Julia bring her diverse talent and experience to Bloomberg Media.

Additionally, Ambika Nigam will take on a newly expanded role as head of product innovation and growth. She has already been leading our strategy for connected devices and apps, as well as BHIVE, our design and research team. Since joining us from IDEO in 2016, Ambika has spearheaded the successful rollouts of our Bloomberg and Apple TV apps, and pioneered our work with Amazon’s Alexa platform. Ambika will have oversight over emerging platforms so that we stay ahead of new technologies and shifts in consumption habits, while she continues to lead BHIVE.

With our digital and media distribution teams now working closely together, Selena Hsu has been appointed to a newly create role of head of partnership operations within Digital and Media Distribution to provide important strategic, operational, and implementation across our expanding portfolio of global partnerships. For example, this month we announced a new partnership in Canada with Bell Media to create BNN Bloomberg, which will be the country’s leading multi-platform business media brand, and Selena has taken the lead in bringing together internal and partner stakeholders to ensure a smooth launch and future expansion.

Finally, filling in the role that Selena vacated, Will Dantzler joined us as strategy and operations associate in October of last year from the Boston Consulting Group. As those of you who have worked with Will have already seen, he has jumped right in, bringing his data, analysis, and consulting skills to bear on the most important projects in our queue.

Please join me in welcoming Julia (and belatedly Will) and congratulating Ambika and Selena on their new roles.

Our strong results last year should make us very proud. With several new and groundbreaking products in development, this is truly an exciting time for our organization, and I look forward to collaborating with all of you to build on our success.

Scott