Cap Cities Broadens Its Top Executive Team : Management: The moves follow charges by some critics that the media conglomerate wasn’t moving fast enough to groom younger executives.
Capital Cities/ABC Inc., signaling an effort to broaden its top management team, named three executives Monday to important new roles. It also formed two operating divisions aimed at taking advantage of new technological and regulatory changes.
The move appeared to answer criticism that the $5.3-billion media conglomerate was not moving fast enough to groom a younger generation of managers to succeed the longtime team of Chief Executive Daniel Burke and Chairman Thomas Murphy.
In the most significant appointment, Robert Iger was promoted to executive vice president of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., a position that leapfrogs him above several longer-serving executives and raises his profile as a possible successor to Burke.
Iger, 42, will continue as president of the ABC Network Group, which oversees its entertainment, news and sports divisions--a job he’s held only seven months.
The other appointments include Stephen Weiswasser, who has been named to the newly created position of president, Capital Cities/ABC Multimedia Group, where he will coordinate the company’s activities in new and emerging technologies. Weiswasser, 52, who remains a senior vice president of Cap Cities, will also resume oversight of the company’s legal department, of which he was previously in charge.
In addition, David Westin has been promoted to president of production at the ABC Television Network Group, another newly created division that consolidates all of the network’s in-house production activities. Westin, 41, had been general counsel at Capital Cities/ABC since 1991.
“These changes underscore the importance of in-house production and new media as targeted areas of growth for this company,” Burke said in a prepared statement. “We are determined to be an important supplier to today’s diverse marketplace and to the emerging technologies here and abroad.” Burke was attending a board meeting and could not be reached for further comment.
Capital Cities/ABC Inc., considered by Wall Street analysts one of the best-run media companies, has nonetheless been increasingly bedeviled in recent months by what is being described as the “successorship issue.” Burke announced earlier this year that he would retire next Febuary, when he turns 65, and has yet to name a successor.
The question is crucial because both Murphy and Burke vote investor Warren Buffet’s 18.3% stake in the company as long as either is chief executive. Those proxies expire when either steps down, leading to speculation that Buffet may sell his stake at that time.
Iger’s promotion to executive vice president elevates him above several veteran executives, including TV stations group head Michael Mallardi and publishing group chief Phillip Meek. The relatively young Iger has skyrocketed through a series of high-level Cap Cities jobs.
“It is a pretty clear indication (Iger) is now the heir apparent,” said Peter P. Appert, a media analyst with Cyrus J. Lawrence in New York. “If that didn’t happen, I’d be greatly surprised.”
But one Cap Cities executive, who asked to be anonymous, cautioned against such speculation and said other executives remained viable candidates. “He’s clearly got a shot,” the executive said. “But this is not a locked-in, here’s-the-guy move for him.”
Rumors have circulated in recent months that Murphy, 67, may be recalled by Buffet and the board to serve as chief executive for a year or so after Burke retires, while Iger or other senior Cap Cities executives get more experience.
Such a move might be preferable to going outside the company to find a new chief executive, which would be uncharacteristic for Cap Cities, and it would show that despite their fabled tenure, Burke and Murphy failed in the ultimate management test: grooming a successor.
