Lisa Hook (News - Alert) has been named the new president and CEO of DNS Solutions provider Neustar. Previously president and chief operating officer, Hook succeeds founding CEO Jeffrey E. Ganek, who will remain chairman of the board. The appointment is effective Oct. 15.
Since joining Neustar in 2008, Hook has strengthened Neustar's market position and helped the company become an important partner to the content and media industries, the company said.
"Three years ago, the board and I set in motion an executive succession plan that culminates today," Ganek said in a statement. "We recruited Lisa as president and COO with the belief that she would be a strong candidate to advance to the position of CEO. This she has proved to be, and we are pleased to announce that Lisa will succeed me."
Prior to joining Neustar, Hook was president and CEO of Sunrocket, Inc., a consumer VoIP company. From 2001 to 2004, Hook held a variety of leadership positions at AOL (News - Alert), including having been president of AOL Broadband, Premium and Developer Services; president of AOL Anywhere, which was an early innovator in enabling consumers to access the content they desired on the device of their choice; and helping to create and lead AOL's Mobile and Voice divisions.
Prior to joining AOL, Hook was a partner at Brera Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in media and telecommunications. Hook also was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Time Warner (News - Alert) Telecommunications, a division of Time Warner, Inc., and later as vice president of Time Warner, Inc., managing various telecom-related transactions. She joined Time Warner in 1989 as special advisor to the vice chairman of Time Warner.
Earlier, she served as legal advisor to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and was an associate at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson.
Hook is a director of Reed Elsevier (News - Alert), Reed Elsevier NV and Reed Elsevier Group. She is also a director of the Ocean Foundation. She is a graduate of Duke University and the Dickinson School of Law.
"Her experience at AOL brought to us a powerful understanding of the Internet, the needs of the IP (Internet Protocol) markets and the role Neustar can play," Ganek commented. "As president and COO, Lisa has demonstrated mastery of our business by delivering strong operating results and growth, while strengthening the management team. As an insider who knows us and our markets well, Lisa is perfectly positioned to be our next CEO and leader.”
Ganek led the company from its inception in the late 1990s, through its IPO in 2005 and to its current position as a partner to highly competitive industries like telecom and media.
"It is an honor to become CEO of Neustar, and to follow a visionary leader like Jeff Ganek," Hook said. "I welcome this chance to work with my colleagues and the board to lead Neustar at a moment of great opportunity. I'm grateful for having had the benefit of learning from Jeff, and I look forward to building on his legacy."
Neustar was founded to meet the technical and operational challenges of the communications industry when the U.S. government mandated that consumers be able to keep their telephone numbers when they switched providers. Today, Neustar operates authoritative databases for virtually all telephone numbers and area codes for the United States and Canada; providing DNS solutions that play a key role in directing and managing traffic on the Internet; and managing the authoritative directories for the .us, .co, and .biz Internet domains, as well as Common Short Codes used by the wireless industry to facilitate text messaging.
In other company news, Neustar also reaffirmed its financial guidance for 2010 and issued preliminary financial results for its third quarter.
According to media reports, the company reported net income of $27.3 million, up from $24.5 million in the prior quarter. And its revenue rose from $117.2 million to $129.5 million.
Preliminary financial results for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2010 shows:
• Consolidated revenue for the quarter to range between $129 and $130 million.
• EBITDA margin to range between 43 percent and 44 percent.
Ed Silverstein is a contributing editor for TMCnet's InfoTech Spotlight. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Tammy Wolf
