Former Yahoo! EVP Americas Rich Riley becomes Shazam CEO as Andrew Fisher steps up to executive chairman ahead of IPO
Media engagement company Shazam has appointed Rich Riley as CEO as Andrew Fisher steps up to the newly created role of executive chairman as it moves towards an IPO.
Riley was most recently EVP Americas for Yahoo! and joins the company’s executive leadership board following the recent appointment of Daniel Danker from the BBC as chief product officer.
Riley commented: “I look forward to extending our dominance in media engagement, from our roots in music to our leadership position in second-screen TV and want to ensure that Shazam is the company that helps people recognize and engage with the world around them.”
Added Fisher: “Rich brings a tremendous amount of experience both as an Internet executive where he has rapidly scaled global businesses, to establishing strategic relationships with advertisers and partners, as well as his entrepreneurial approach and skills. Whilst Rich will run our business I will now spend more time focusing on our corporate development and future strategy including our ambitions to deliver a successful IPO for our shareholders as we look to become an increasingly important part of people’s everyday lives, helping them engage with content and brands in the most efficient way possible.”
Fisher has served as CEO for nearly eight years and steered the company’s growth to over 300m users of the Shazam app, with annual digital sales of £300m through its affiliate partnerships with iTunes, Amazon and ITV.