CBS Names Laurie Rosenfield Chief People Officer
By Brian Steinberg
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – CBS Corp. named Laurie Rosenfield to the newly created position of Chief People Officer, Corporation, a move that comes as the company is in the midst of a legal investigation into its corporate culture.
She will be based in New York and report to Joe Ianniello, the company’s president and acting CEO.
“We are very pleased to name Laurie to this new position as we continue to reassess and strengthen the culture here at CBS,” said Ianniello, in a statement. “Our employees are our most valuable asset, and this role has been created to ensure we remain steadfast in our commitment to putting our people first. Laurie’s expertise in attracting, developing and retaining the best talent, coupled with her focus on the opportunity in front of us to strengthen our workplace, made her the natural choice to take on this vitally important responsibility.”
Rosenfield is expected to focus on people and culture and manage certain human resources functions, including oversight of learning and development; executive search; talent acquisition; as well as the day-to-day human resources “generalist” responsibilities with each of CBS’ business units.
The hire is the latest maneuver from a company that has come under scrutiny after allegations were raised about sexual harassment from its former CEO, Leslie Moonves. CBS in recent days has set about a recalibration of its corporate path. The corporation announced its annual meeting after two delays, and ha hired an advisory firm to help guide the distribution of a $20 million charitable donation it pledged to women’s equality and anti-harassment organizations in the wake of the scandal that enveloped its former CEO. CBS said the grant recipients will be named by Dec. 14 – a date that is thought to be significant for the timeline of the investigation and its conclusion. CBS initially said it would disburse the funds within a month of the Sept. 9 announcement of Moonves’ departure.
An internal probe, handled by two different law firms, he probe, Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling, has been extant since August.
Rosenfield joined CBS in May 2018 as a senior vice president in its human resources unit. Prior to joining CBS, she was a specialist in executive search and talent development since 2002, most recently serving as managing director, executive search at MediaLink from 2014 to 2018, where she worked closely with clients experiencing disruption at the intersection of media, marketing, entertainment, advertising and technology. She began her career in programming and development roles in the motion picture divisions for both United Artists Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. Rosenfield is an alumna of Dartmouth College.
More to come….
