The Weather Channel Companies has named David Kenny as its new chairman and chief executive officer.
Kenny is the former president of Akamai, a leading cloud platform. He also co-founded and served as managing partner of VivaKi, the combined worldwide media and digital arm of Publicis Groupe, and was chairman and CEO at Digitas Inc., a global integrated brand agency. He is a member of the Yahoo Inc. board of directors, and a director of Teach for America, a nonprofit group that enlists recent graduates to teach and effect change in under-resourced and low-income communities.
He succeeds Mike Kelly, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2009. He will serve as a special adviser to the CEO and the Board of Directors of TWCC. He will also serve as an adviser to Bain Capital, which owns the Weather Channel along with The Blackstone Group and NBC Universal.
"I was attracted to The Weather Channel because weather is fascinating," said Kenny. "Accurate, timely forecasting is an everyday necessity for people and businesses everywhere. The Weather Channel has ubiquitous reach across our TV, digital and mobile platforms, and that’s what makes us so unique."
The consortium that owns the company said in a statement: "David brings a strong leadership background having served as chief executive at global companies across different aspects of the media industry. This experience gives him a deep understanding of the TV and digital business, and he has the leadership experience and vision to drive global initiatives across all platforms. The Weather Channel Companies business is strong and on the right track, and with David leading a strong team, we are well positioned to seize the many good opportunities that lie ahead."
The Weather Channel reaches 163 million people, 110 million of whom access content on multiple platforms. It provides weather information online to roughly 62 million unique a month and 11 million users each day. It also reaches 33 million monthly unique users through its mobile platform and 94 million monthly cable viewers.
