CNN International has promoted Rani Raad from Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer to the newly created role of President, CNN International Commercial. He will report to Gerhard Zeiler, President, Turner International.
While in the new role, Mr Raad will continue to be responsible for CNN’s commercial functions outside the US, the development of Turner International’s programmatic trading strategy will also be facilitated under his leadership.
The move also indicates Turner’s interest in revenues and consumer connection via programmatic and advertising technology routes.
Commenting on Mr Raad’s elevation, Mr Zeiler said, “Rani has a remarkable track record in leading a diverse portfolio of commercial initiatives across international markets. He has built a new digital team that is the authority in this space and has transformed the commercial operation for CNN internationally, bringing in a new leadership team to deliver best-in-class and award-winning ad sales solutions as well as re-setting the licensing and content sales businesses to yield a suite of new branded initiatives around the globe.”
Mr Raad has led CNN International Commercial group since its launch in 2013 to align all of CNN’s international commercial activity into one organization. This activity spans core business activities such as advertising sales, content sales and partnerships, business development, marketing and research.
In the new role, he will continue to be responsible for Turner’s kids and general entertainment businesses across Turkey and the Middle East.
