After greater than three a long time on the firm, Jo Ann Ross is exiting Paramount.
On Tuesday, Paramount introduced that Ross, chairman of Paramount Promoting, is stepping down from the place on the finish of the month.
In a memo to workers, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish famous the timing labored for the choice, with Ross “having helped prime our gross sales workforce for an additional sturdy upfront season.”
Ross joined CBS in 1992 as vp of Olympic gross sales, later changing into the primary lady to function gross sales chief of a broadcast community and the longest-tenured gross sales head in broadcast tv.
Bakish famous Ross’s many accomplishments in his workers memo, saying that the manager “steered our promoting enterprise from one milestone to the subsequent,” together with overseeing the profitable integration of a mixed advert gross sales workforce in 2019 when CBS merged with Viacom and being “important” within the firm’s efforts to ship a record-setting Tremendous Bowl this 12 months.
“In a profession outlined by firsts, Jo Ann has been a driving power for the development of our firm and the trade at giant,” Bakish wrote. “Her legacy is just unmatched.”
Amongst her many highlights, following two years of digital upfront displays as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, Ross led the corporate’s first in-person presentation underneath its new title, Paramount, in 2022. Throughout the occasion, the manager turned the presentation right into a reside model of 60 Minutes and even carried out a bit with the solid of the CBS comedy Ghosts.
“I’ll say very humbly that I believe all of us nailed it. And I believe that there have been a few jokes main up, however we set the flag on the mountain. And [the Paramount name] rolls off all people’s tongue very naturally now,” Ross informed ADWEEK following the occasion.
Paramount’s ongoing transitions
Ross transitioned from her earlier position of Paramount’s advert gross sales chief in 2022, with Paramount’s present gross sales head, John Halley, taking on.
When Ross introduced she’d be taking the position of chairman, the previous advert gross sales chief additionally famous that Halley was set to take the advert gross sales workforce to “new heights.”
Along with coming forward of the upfront, Ross’s announcement occurs at a time when Paramount goes by way of wider firm transitions, with a number of potential patrons circling and the corporate exploring the sale of properties akin to VidCon.
