Dow Jones chief innovation offer to take on broader role

Dow Jones & Co. chief executive officer William Lewis sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

Dear Colleague,

Edward Roussel, Chief Innovation Officer for Dow Jones, is to expand his role to include a special focus on creating and accelerating startups.

We need to be able to take great ideas and grow them into businesses far more rapidly, delivering both amazing products for our customers and outstanding opportunities for our people and partners.

Accordingly, Edward will spearhead our entrepreneurial charge, driving startups from wireframes to world-beaters by harnessing our competitive advantages with journalism, design and technology, while leveraging the convening power of our Live Journalism. He will draw on and deploy data at every opportunity, using the authority of verifiable information to incubate products.

Edward will also form smart partnerships where these help fill our startup pipeline. This aspect of his wider role dovetails with his existing responsibilities as head of our industry partnerships team, managing relationships with the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple, as well as smaller, niche players.

As part of his broader remit, Edward will take up the reins on our NewsPicks joint venture, as well as our Lessons in Leadership partnership with Cass Business School. He will also now lead our Future of Everything franchise.

To allow him to focus exclusively on innovation, partnerships and startups, Edward is to relinquish his responsibilities as Chief Communications Officer – an additional role he has performed with skill and dedication for the past year and a half.

Andrew Robinson, currently Senior Vice President of Communications, will serve as interim Chief Communications Officer in the New York office, reporting to me, while we conduct a search and competitive process to identify the best candidate for the permanent role.

Best,