Three executives leaving in Consumer Reports reorganization

Consumer Reports CEO Marta Tellado sent out the following announcement to the staff on Thursday:

Dear Colleagues,

I want to share with you today some important changes that will help propel us further along the strategic path to our future. Our journey is marked by exciting opportunities and difficult choices but ultimately, thanks to your innovation and hard work, we can set a course to attain the renewed relevance and growth we all recognize is needed for us to achieve greater marketplace impact in an economically sustainable way.

This past year I’ve done a lot of listening: to you, to our board, to our customers, to our donors. I’m grateful for your observations and advice. In turn, I have tried to respond to your sense of urgency about our future given a fiercely competitive landscape where our true value is not well understood.

You shared your frustrations and your passion for CR. You wanted to see progress on CRO, more integration across the enterprise, a powerful marketing function, and greater capacity to innovate by leveraging technology. I hope you share my belief that we have made some real progress.

Our journey continues, however, as we keep working to create a flatter and leaner management structure, to consolidate and reorganize those areas where collaboration means better results, to promote internal talent, and to build leadership expertise.

Today’s announcement represents our continuing efforts on these fronts.

TECHNOLOGY THAT POWERS INNOVATION

Our technology needs continue to escalate at a rapid pace. Many of you have commented about the need for upgrades to our current systems. Equally critical to our success is the role technology will play as a driver of innovation and advancement.

Recognizing this, we are consolidating all technology operations under Vice President of Digital Jason Fox, who will configure IT to reflect its two core functions: enterprise technology and digital technology.

We will align these functions under two leaders, a Chief Technology Officer and a Chief Enterprise Systems Officer, both reporting to Jason. This new structure will also mean the elimination of the position of Chief Information Officer, and regrettably the departure of Rahul Belani, who has served CR tirelessly during a period of remarkable change and evolution. He has laid a strong foundation, and I am extremely indebted to him for his consistent and impressive stewardship of IT.

In the new position of Chief Technology Officer, we are very fortunate to have recruited a creative, award-winning, and innovative leader with over 20 years of experience developing technology solutions for consumer-facing products for places such as eBay, Time Inc., Wenner Media, and Conde Nast. Pete DiRenzo will join us as CTO on October 1st. He is presently Director of Digital Operations & Technology at Re/code, the highly influential tech-media site. Being able to attract a top-tier talent like Pete from such a well-regarded start-up as Re/code will accelerate our digital mastery as an organization. David Roubini and his team, as well as Sal Sajan, will report directly to Pete.

We are not only supplementing our digital and technology innovation capabilities with new talent, but are also promoting from within. We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Andrew Danyluk to the position of Chief Enterprise Systems Officer. His command of our internal systems and outstanding management skills will help align our IT infrastructure with our organizational priorities. Andrew will oversee the project management office and enterprise systems and services. Pete and Andrew represent a powerful partnership.

Russell Vines will now report to Andrew while also working closely with Jason Fox and Eric Wayne as we align information and technology security with risk management. Charlene Tighe will also report to Andrew.

MARKETING FOR GROWTH AND REACH

We are making good progress in our search for a Chief Marketing Officer to transform the way in which we engage, acquire, and retain customers. And we expect that later this year we’ll be able to announce our new colleague.

Several departments will be aligned under the new CMO as we shift from a product-centric approach to one that is consumer-centric, and begin to examine our entire marketing strategy through the lens of One CR. This effort will require centralized leadership to unite all marketing touch points and develop a cohesive strategy for results and growth.

Our Customer Care team manages perhaps our most personal relationship with consumers. This function now will report into the CMO for better alignment and greater impact. Although this change creates more opportunity and potential for growth, it also represents a bittersweet transition. Carolyn Clifford-Ferrara will be leaving CR, and her quality management and operations analysis team, Frank Iacopelli, Val Jeffers and Lila Lee, will now report to Peter Meirs who manages workflow change integration. Carolyn’s exemplary service to CR for over two decades and her recognition of and dedication to the importance of the customer experience, have prepared this team to make even greater contributions in the future. I am grateful for her steadfast advocacy within CR for putting our customers’ needs first.

Also reporting into the CMO will be Brent Diamond, who has demonstrated sure-handed leadership of CRM marketing. Brent will oversee the membership, print marketing, and newsstand teams and will manage Customer Care on an interim basis until the new CMO arrives.

STRONG GOVERNANCE

In an effort to reinforce good governance and best practices for nonprofit organizations, we will align our legal office with board relations.

The reorganization of both IT and Marketing will allow EVP Ricardo Castro the opportunity to pivot from these interim oversight responsibilities and step into the role of General Counsel, a role he served in for many years at two major global organizations prior to arriving at CR. This realignment will combine the legal function led by Eileen Hershenov with the governance work Ricardo currently manages with the board of directors. He will also retain oversight of Human Resources.

This reorganization will mean the departure of Eileen Hershenov, whose vast contributions and passionate commitment to CR will have a long and lasting impact. Heath Grayson and Erika Mikkelsen will report to Ricardo, with Angela Ciani and Wendy Wintman reporting to Heath.

I believe these changes further position us to both serve and reach consumers in new and dynamic ways, but they no doubt represent difficult choices. I want to express my deep gratitude to Rahul, Carolyn, and Eileen. In their years of service they have made innumerable contributions that have touched this entire organization. Our sincere appreciation and best wishes go out to each. We will all have the opportunity to celebrate their work and valuable contributions as colleagues and friends.

Putting Consumer Reports in a position to thrive in a changing world requires us to adapt responsibly — and change is never easy. While everyone at CR understands that we are in a period of necessary transition, I don’t doubt that many of you will have concerns and questions about the changes taking place as we position ourselves for a successful and sustainable future. You deserve to have those concerns addressed and those questions answered. In the very near future we will have a conversation about the road ahead. To ensure that everyone who wants to has an opportunity to be heard, we will make several dates available for us to get together.

Thank you again for continuing to share your insights with me. I value them greatly, as I do your hard work and remarkable dedication.

Appreciatively,
Marta