The managing director of Bloomberg Media in EMEA, Adam Freeman, has announced that he is leaving the financial news behemoth at the end of January 2016.
Freeman, who joined the company in May 2014 following stints at Mutual Media and Guardian News & Media to aid in the launch of consumer-facing website Bloomberg Business, reportedly plans to move into the start-up sector, according to Campaign.
He announced his departure via Twitter, and will leave the business at the end of January.
Big news for me today…decided to move on from @bbgmedia in 2016 and want to thank the brilliant team for all their hard work #bestworkever
— Adam Freeman (@adamfreeman) December 9, 2015
In light of this announcement, managing director of Asia-Pacific Parry Ravindranathan has been promoted to managing director of international, while EMEA publishing director Justin Dewhirst will report to Ravindranathan in his new role of general manager for EMEA.
Bloomberg declined commenting on the news.
“This is a structural change not a strategy change,” Bloomberg Media Group chief executive Justin Smith told Campaign, denying that the changes represented a scaling back in the region.
“This structural change is designed to reinforce our global approach to development and modernisation,” he added. “We are continuing to expand and invest aggressively in EMEA.”
Freeman’s exit follows that of Matt Teeman, the commercial director, who left the company in November after 15 months, and the subsequent promotion of New York group publisher in charge of Bloomberg’s Live events, Viktoria Degta to London-based EMEA head of sales.
In a memo to Staff, Smith reportedly said that Freeman had been “critical in expanding (our) media efforts in EMEA”, including the launch of Bloomberg Business Europe.
“In the six months since its introduction, desktop traffic in the region has grown more than 110% year-over-year, pushing us ahead of many of our largest competitors.
“Our digital video viewership continues to grow, and since January we’ve remained the number one source of business and financial video in the UK. In a short time Adam built a strong foundation in the EMEA region for which we are very grateful.”
The changes follow Al Mayers promotion from general manager of Bloomberg Radio to head of global TV and radio in September, as part of a decision to give Mayers a mandate to create a “seamless world-wide product”.
Bloomberg Media is introducing European radio coverage, Bloomberg Radio First Word Europe, following the introduction of new Europe focused TV show last month.
