Business Insider president Julie Hansen sent out the following announcement on Thursday:
Please join me in congratulating our new General Counsel, Mike Kingfield, and our new CFO, Steve Lagnado!
Mike joined Business Insider 2.5 years ago and set up a legal department handling both editorial and business needs. As the department grew, he hired an excellent teammate in Julia Le. Mike has handled a dizzying array of legal challenges, from first amendment and libel issues to international licenses, BII licenses, real estate, employment, stock option agreements, trademarks, and the transaction with Axel Springer. He has demonstrated his legal prowess in these disparate disciplines.
Those of you in editorial particularly know that Mike cares deeply about our journalistic standards and defending first amendment rights.
Steve joined BI almost two years ago and set up our finance team to handle the new accounting demands that came from launching BI UK and our generally relentless growth. Within months the sale to Axel Springer began and he guided us through a complicated M&A transaction at breakneck speed. At the same time he transitioned our financial system to a new platform, Netsuite, and took on an endless series of new responsibilities from building out a team, to taxes, budgeting, financial analysis, insurance, and more.
Steve and the finance team (Yuntian, Jillian, and Andrew) have done a tremendous job meeting the reporting requirements of Axel Springer while still keeping the BI finance group easy to work with for non-accountants.
Both Mike and Steve exemplify the BI mission of getting better every day and it’s great to see them be recognized for it. Pls drop them a line or a high five next time you see them.
