Christina Spade will be departing as EVP/CFO of ViacomCBS, with her transition to “an advisory role” set to transpire immediately following the company’s Q2 2020 earnings call.
That’s been scheduled for August 10. Who is Spade’s successor? Look no further than the Devices and Services CFO for Amazon.
That would be Naveen Chopra, who has served as the top finance leader for the Amazon division, which is comprised of Alexa, Echo, FireTV, Kindle, Ring, Tablets, and Appstore, among other products, for the past year.
Before that, he spent two years at Pandora as CFO and interim CEO.
Chopra exited Pandora in February 2019, following its acquisition for $3.5 billion by SiriusXM. And, he’d been at the streaming audio pioneer since February 2017, when he concluded a 13-year run at TiVo.
The Stanford MBA holder began his career in fall 1995 as Director of Business Development at Hewlett-Packard.
In his new role, Chopra will be responsible for ViacomCBS’s financial operations, including treasury, tax, accounting, investor relations, information security and real estate, as well as global corporate development and strategy. He will report directly to ViacomCBS President/CEO Bob Bakish.
“Naveen is a talented leader who combines financial, strategic and operational expertise with hands-on experience growing innovative, consumer-focused businesses across the media and tech sector,” said Bakish. “His experience scaling and driving the financial strategies for growth businesses – including free ad-supported and subscription streaming, as well as with digital devices and services – will be instrumental as we continue to unlock the value of our assets.”
Chopra said he is thrilled to join ViacomCBS “at this exciting time. Since its merger, the company has gained strong momentum amidst a rapidly evolving landscape by leveraging its subscription and advertising businesses, diverse distribution channels, formidable library and strong content pipeline. I look forward to working closely with Bob and the team to apply my experiences across consumer products and services, streaming and digital advertising to help write the next chapter of this amazing company.”
Addressing Spade’s eventual departure from the CFO role at ViacomCBS, Bakish said, “I am grateful to Chris for her many contributions to ViacomCBS, including her two decades at Showtime and CBS and the pivotal role she played in the integration of CBS and Viacom. I want to extend my deepest thanks to her for her leadership and counsel, and for helping to ensure a smooth transition.”
Spade played what ViacomCBS considers to be “a key role” in steering the integration of CBS and Viacom, building “a unified and aligned finance organization.”
She was also credited for strengthening the company’s balance sheet through the COVID-19 pandemic “to ensure it is well positioned to continue navigating the current economic environment.”
Spade was EVP/CFO of Showtime Network for six years before ascending to the ViacomCBS role.
