Major Thomson Reuters shake-up claims more scalps

Chris Ahearn, president of media, is leaving the company, along with four others in the markets division which includes Reuters news agency.

Devin Wenig, chief executive of the markets, left yesterday in a re-organisation that the company said aimed to accelerate growth in its financial data business. Second quarter growth in markets has been “somewhat slower than anticipated”, the company said on Thursday. The shares were down more than three per cent in New York on Friday.

Susan Taylor Martin, president of global investment focus accounts, replaces Ahearn as head of media. Tom Glocer, chief executive of the entire group, takes on oversight of markets, assuming Wenig’s role as well as running the whole business. He said: “These changes are intended to accelerate growth as we flatten our organisation to operate as an integrated company and unleash cross-company capabilities and operating synergies.”

Both Ahearn, a former investment banker, and Wenig were executives of Reuters when the company was taken over by Thomson in 2008.

The Financial Times said Wenig’s exit was seen as a sign that Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s holding company, was seeking faster change after 12 months in which its shares have fallen by 9.9 per cent. The Thomsons, Canada’s richest family, own 55 per cent of the business. The FT said the Thomson Reuters board has been looking for new growth strategies as it came to the end of a three-year integration period following the takeover in which cost savings had driven results.

Sources in New York said the Thomsons had decided to give the integration three years to bed down and then act if they thought performance was falling short of expectations. 

Glocer said he will manage the financial services business of markets through two closely aligned operating units: Financial Professionals & Marketplaces and Enterprise Solutions. The Financial Professionals & Marketplaces unit will come together over the coming months through the combination of the present Sales & Trading (S&T) and Investment & Advisory (I&A) units. This unit will be led by Shanker Ramamurthy, who joined in May from IBM where he was a general manager and currently runs S&T.

“To give Shanker time to ramp up, I&A will report on an interim basis to Bob Daleo, CFO of Thomson Reuters, who will transition the business to Shanker in a careful and open process,” Glocer said. “Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler will also report directly to me, reflecting the cross-company role of Editorial.”

Glocer will chair a new markets executive committee. 

“This transformation is about driving growth, unleashing cross-company capabilities and making it easier to get things done,” he said. “Importantly, it’s also about accountability and transparency. As we work to create a performance-driven culture, let’s make it a culture where results speak the loudest and collaboration is the norm.”

The other senior executives leaving are investment and advisory president Eric Frank, markets global sales and customer service managing director Joerg Floeck, markets chief marketing officer Lee Ann Daly and markets global head of human resources John Reid-Dodick.

Glocer said he was not planning any further changes of this scale at corporate level or in the professional division, where a similar streamlining effort was carried out earlier this year. ■