David Kenny is an American businessman and the former CEO of Nielsen Holdings. He was formerly the CEO of The Weather Company and senior vice president of IBM's Watson & Cloud platform.
Early life and education
editKenny was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1961.[1] He earned a bachelor's degree from Kettering University (then the General Motors Institute) in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986.[2][1]
Career
editKenny worked as a consultant at Bain & Company between 1987 and 1997.[1] In 1997 he became the CEO of Digitas, leading the company through an initial public offering in 2000 and its acquisition by Publicis Groupe in 2007.[3][4] He was the president of Akamai Technologies and resigned from this position on October 26, 2011.[5][6]
In January 2012, Kenny replaced Mike Kelly as CEO of The Weather Company and served as chairman of the board.[7][8] When The Weather Company was acquired by IBM in 2016, Kenny became the senior Vice President of IBM's Watson & Cloud platform.[9]
Kenny joined Nielsen as CEO in December 2018. In September 2023, he was succeeded by Karthik Rao and assumed the role of executive chairman.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c Vanham, Peter (2017). Before I Was CEO (PDF). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 9781119278085. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (November 20, 2018). "Nielsen Names IBM Exec David Kenny CEO". Variety. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
- ^ Hennessey, Raymond (March 14, 2000). "Digitas Shares Move Higher After Initial Public Offering". WSJ. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ Pfanner, Eric (December 20, 2006). "Publicis buys Digitas, an online marketer, for $1.3 million". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ Facts & Figures. Akamai.com. Retrieved on March 24, 2017.
- ^ Ovide, Shira (October 26, 2011). "Is This Man Campaigning for the Yahoo CEO Job?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- ^ Vranica, Suzanne; Schechner, Sam (January 25, 2012). "Weather Channel Taps Digital Expert as CEO". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- ^ Newsroom | The Weather Company. Press.weather.com. Retrieved on March 24, 2017.
- ^ Lunden, Ingrid (January 29, 2016). "IBM Closes Weather Co. Purchase, Names David Kenny New Head Of Watson Platform". TechCrunch.
- ^ Cobb, Kayla (September 14, 2023). "Nielsen CEO David Kenny Exits, Karthik Rao Promoted". TheWrap. Retrieved January 19, 2024.