Brian Lakamp
Clear Channel has tapped Brian Lakamp to serve as its new president of technology and digital ventures.
According to a release, in this new role, Lakamp will work closely with Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman and President Rich Bressler to lead the overall technology platform and capabilities for all of Clear Channel. He will also be responsible for developing the company’s overall place in big data and programmatic buying. He will serve as the company’s corporate voice on major technology projects, oversee Clear Channel’s relationship with the tech community and develop a corporate strategy that unifies all Clear Channel technology platforms.
“Looking across Clear Channel’s diverse set of media businesses … there are massive opportunities to utilize emerging technologies to unlock business value and offer unmatched possibilities for our advertisers, our audiences and ourselves around analytics, programmatic buying of targeted audiences, and beyond,” said Lakamp.
Lakamp will report to Pittman, and reporting to Lakamp will be Jeff Littlejohn, executive vice president of engineering and systems integration; Pete Gerrald, chief information officer; Philippe Generali, president and CEO of Clear Channel’s RCS Worldwide broadcast software division; and Joe Robinson, executive vice president of strategic development.
“Digital is now at the core of Clear Channel and is key to all our operating businesses, and putting Brian — someone with a proven technology and digital track record — into the most senior level of the company with a clear mandate to keep us in the forefront of using technology to transform our business reflects the increasingly important role that technology is playing at Clear Channel,” said Bressler.
Under this new structure, iHeartRadio will become part of Clear Channel Networks Group, reporting to its president, Darren Davis. Davis will now be responsible for the entire business of iHeartRadio as well as Premiere Networks; Total Traffic and Weather Network; and the 24/7 News Network.
Reporting to Davis will be Pablo Calamera, chief technology officer of iHeartRadio Networks; Jerrell Jimerson, SVP of product for iHeartRadio Networks; Brian Kaminsky, EVP of Operations for iHeartRadio networks; and Steven Radley, SVP of Content for iHeartRadio Networks.
In other company news, Clear Channel Tampa announced today that Fernando Bauermeister has been named vice president of sales.
Bauermeister will oversee all sales operations for Tampa’s nine-station cluster, which includes WFLA(AM), WDAE(AM), WHNZ(AM), WFLZ(FM), WBTP(FM), WXTB(FM), WMTX(FM) and WFUS(FM). He has been in the radio industry for more than 21 years and with Clear Channel for the past nine years. He most recently served as general sales manager for the past year and a half.
