SUZI WATFORD APPOINTED SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER FOR SIRIUSXM
Leading audio company appoints newly created Chief Growth Officer to focus on streaming business
New York, NY – January 17, 2023 – SiriusXM today announced the appointment of Suzi Watford to the newly-created role of Senior Vice President and Chief Growth Officer for SiriusXM, reporting to Chief Commercial Officer Joe Verbrugge. In this position, Suzi will take a leadership position in driving SiriusXM’s enterprise-level growth strategy with oversight across a variety of key areas, including the SiriusXM streaming subscription business as well as corporate marketing, analytics and research for SiriusXM and Pandora.
Suzi brings two decades of experience architecting and implementing transformational growth strategies in the direct-to-consumer space, and will play a similar role at SiriusXM as she helps to propel the Company into the next phase of its evolution. In this role, Suzi will lead the distribution, acquisition, retention and engagement strategies of SiriusXM’s streaming businesses.
“Suzi is a dynamic leader who has played a key role in the digital transformation of media businesses, and she will be instrumental at SiriusXM as we continue to execute upon our vision to shape the future of audio,” said Joe Verbrugge, Chief Commercial Officer, SiriusXM. “Suzi has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to build and lead talented teams to evolve and grow profitable consumer subscription businesses, and we are thrilled to have her join us.”
“SiriusXM’s combination of world-class programming and talent with a passionate subscriber base is unmatched in the marketplace, and offers an incredible foundation for future growth,” said Watford. "I’m looking forward to joining the talented team at SiriusXM at this stage in the company's journey and playing a role as we look to attract and retain new growth audiences."
Prior to joining SiriusXM, Suzi held various growth leadership roles at Dow Jones. Most recently, Suzi led the overall consumer business for Dow Jones, including all aspects of marketing and subscription acquisition for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch. She previously also served as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at The Wall Street Journal, overseeing global sales and marketing for the publication. Suzi joined Dow Jones from News UK where she served as Sales and Marketing Director for The Times and The Sunday Times. Suzi will be based in SiriusXM’s headquarters in New York City.
About Sirius XM Holdings Inc.
SiriusXM is the leading audio entertainment company in North America with a portfolio of audio businesses including its flagship subscription entertainment service SiriusXM; the ad-supported and premium music streaming services of Pandora; an expansive podcast network; and a suite of business and advertising solutions. Reaching a combined monthly audience of approximately 150 million listeners, SiriusXM offers a broad range of content for listeners everywhere they tune in with a diverse mix of live, on-demand, and curated programming across music, talk, news, and sports. For more about SiriusXM, please go to: www.siriusxm.com.
This communication contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future financial and operating results, our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions with respect to future operations, products and services; and other statements identified by words such as "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimated," "believe," "intend," "plan," "projection," "outlook" or words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond our control. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results and the timing of events to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements: we have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by supply chain issues as a result of the global semiconductor supply shortage; we face substantial competition and that competition is likely to increase over time; if our efforts to attract and retain subscribers and listeners, or convert listeners into subscribers, are not successful, our business will be adversely affected; we engage in extensive marketing efforts and the continued effectiveness of those efforts is an important part of our business; we rely on third parties for the operation of our business, and the failure of third parties to perform could adversely affect our business; we may not realize the benefits of acquisitions and other strategic investments and initiatives; the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced significant uncertainty to our business; a substantial number of our Sirius XM service subscribers periodically cancel their subscriptions and we cannot predict how successful we will be at retaining customers; our ability to profitably attract and retain subscribers to our Sirius XM service as our marketing efforts reach more price-sensitive consumers is uncertain; our business depends in part on the auto industry; failure of our satellites would significantly damage our business; our Sirius XM service may experience harmful interference from wireless operations; our Pandora ad-supported business has suffered a substantial and consistent loss of monthly active users, which may adversely affect our Pandora business; our failure to convince advertisers of the benefits of our Pandora ad-supported service could harm our business; if we are unable to maintain revenue growth from our advertising products our results of operations will be adversely affected; changes in mobile operating systems and browsers may hinder our ability to sell advertising and market our services; if we fail to accurately predict and play music, comedy or other content that our Pandora listeners enjoy, we may fail to retain existing and attract new listeners; privacy and data security laws and regulations may hinder our ability to market our services, sell advertising and impose legal liabilities; consumer protection laws and our failure to comply with them could damage our business; failure to comply with FCC requirements could damage our business; if we fail to protect the security of personal information about our customers, we could be subject to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation and our reputation could suffer; interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business; the market for music rights is changing and is subject to significant uncertainties; our Pandora services depend upon maintaining complex licenses with copyright owners, and these licenses contain onerous terms; the rates we must pay for “mechanical rights” to use musical works on our Pandora service have increased substantially and these new rates may adversely affect our business; failure to protect our intellectual property or actions by third parties to enforce their intellectual property rights could substantially harm our business and operating results; some of our services and technologies may use “open source” software, which may restrict how we use or distribute our services or require that we release the source code subject to those licenses; rapid technological and industry changes and new entrants could adversely impact our services; we have a significant amount of indebtedness, and our debt contains certain covenants that restrict our operations; we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NASDAQ listing rules and, as a result, qualify for, and rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements; while we currently pay a quarterly cash dividend to holders of our common stock, we may change our dividend policy at any time; our principal stockholder has significant influence, including over actions requiring stockholder approval, and its interests may differ from the interests of other holders of our common stock; if we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, our business could be harmed; our facilities could be damaged by natural catastrophes or terrorist activities; the unfavorable outcome of pending or future litigation could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition; we may be exposed to liabilities that other entertainment service providers would not customarily be subject to; and our business and prospects depend on the strength of our brands. Additional factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022, which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available at the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this communication.
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Source: SiriusXM
Media contact:
Jessica Casano-Antonellis
Jessica.Casano@siriusxm.com
Released January 17, 2023