As of Wednesday (12/18), Nielsen Holdings has had a new member of its Board of Directors.
A day later, it gave its interim corporate controller SVP stripes in cementing his tenure at Nielsen, which began in July 2016.
Now on the Nielsen board is Nancy Tellem.
Tellem is the Executive Chairman and Chief Media Officer at Eko, formerly known as Interlude.
Her rich career includes roles as Executive Director of MGM, and as President of Xbox Entertainment Studios.
But, before 2012, she was widely known for her time at CBS Corporation.
Tellem spent 15 years at CBS, starting in 1997, when she departed Warner Bros. after seven years as EVP of Business and Financial Affairs.
From 1997-2010, Tellem served as President of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group. In January 2010, she shifted to a role as Senior Advisor to the CEO. This ended in September 2012.
“Technology and consumer behavior are changing at a furious pace for content owners, distributors and advertisers,” Tellem said. “A respected and independent measurement and analytics company will be even more important in the future than it’s ever been in the past. It’s an exciting moment for the industry and for Nielsen. I’m delighted to join the board at this time.”
The addition to Tellem to the Nielsen board came one day before Christopher Taft was appointed Nielsen’s SVP/Corporate Controller. He will serve as the designated principal accounting officer for SEC reporting purposes.
Taft joined Nielsen 3 1/2 years ago as VP/Finance and later was promoted to VP/Asst. Global Controller.
Before joining Nielsen, Taft spent nine years at GE, in various finance roles.
With the promotion, Taft is getting a $50,000 annual raise, and will earn $350,000 per year.
His annual bonus target has increased from $125,000 to $150,000.
He was also granted an equity award of restricted stock units with a grant date fair market value of $175,000.
Meanwhile, new Chief HR Officer Laurie Lovett is set to enjoy a base salary of $500,000, a target annual cash bonus of an additional $500,000, and $1 million in stock units.
Lovett joins Nielsen on Jan. 13, 2020, and was formerly Global Chief HR Officer at Verisk Analytics. Until joining Verisk in April 2016, Lovett spent more than 20 years with Accenture.
