It appears as if the nation’s No. 1 operator of AM and FM radio stations is very close to shedding its debtor-in-possession status.
Wednesday morning saw the release by iHeartMedia of an official list of members selected to serve on its Board of Directors following the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Among the names appearing with President/COO and CFO Rich Bressler and CEO and Board Chairman Bob Pittman: Disney’s former CFO and the head of MGM until earlier this year.
Following iHeart’s hoped-for, and expected, approval of its plan of reorganization, Bressler and Pittman will be joined by Jay Rasulo, as Lead Independent Director.
Rasulo served as CFO at The Walt Disney Co. from 2010 through 2015, and had been at the company since 1986. During his tenure at Walt Disney, among other roles, he served as the Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.
Also coming on board is Gary Barber, who spent eight years as Chairman/CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) through March 2018. Prior to his role at MGM, he was the co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment, which he founded in 1998.
Three others will be on the newly constituted iHeart Board:
- Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of internet, software, and travel-focused investment firm Altimeter Capital
- Sean Mahoney, a private investor who was a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he headed the Financial Sponsors Group, and Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Deutsche Bank Securities
- Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, founder and CEO of Drawbridge, a company focused on designing quantitative algorithms for numerous areas, including computational advertising. Prior to founding Drawbridge, Ms. Sivaramakrishnan was a Senior Research Scientist at AdMob, which was acquired by Google in 2010.
iHeartMedia’s current Board of Directors will remain in place until the company emerges from Chapter 11, at which time the new Board will assume its responsibilities.
“We are excited about both the depth and range of our new Board members,” said Pittman. “We know our ability to draw on the experience of this unique combination of leaders in their respective fields will give us an unparalleled competitive advantage as we build our next level of growth.”
