OFFICIAL: Pandora CEO Westergren, President, CMO All Exit As Jason Hirschhorn Joins Board
It's official. Pandora CEO and founder Tim Westergren is exiting the music streamer, along with two other key executives. CFO Naveen Chopra was named interim CEO and former MySpace head Jason Hirschhorn has joined the Pandora board.
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Pandora today announced that founder and CEO Tim Westergren "has decided to step down". The popular executive, who founded the music streamer 17 years ago, will also be giving up his seat on Pandora's board of directors.
Replacing Westergren on the board is Jason Hirschhorn. Currently the CEO of the ReDEF Group, the digital content curation company that he founded in 2013, Hirschhorn was previously the Chief Product Officer and Co-President of Myspace.
CFO Naveen Chopra, who recently joined Pandora to shore up its balance sheet, was named interim CEO as the board looks for a new leader. Exiting alongside Westergren are Pandora president Brian Herring and chief marketing officer Nick Bartle.
“I am incredibly proud of the company we have built. We invented a whole new way of enjoying and discovering music and in doing so, forever changed the listening experience for millions." Westergren said in a statement. "I came back to the CEO role last year to drive transformation across the business. We accomplished far more than we anticipated. We rebuilt Pandora’s relationships with the music industry; launched a fantastic Premium on-demand service, and brought a host of tech innovations to our advertising business. With these in place, plus a strengthened balance sheet, I believe Pandora is perfectly poised for its next chapter.”
