CNET Networks Inc. Chairman and Founder Halsey Minor passed the torch Wednesday to
Chief Executive Officer Shelby Bonnie as the members enjoyed elevated status
on a board the company feels will lead them into the future.
Minor, who will quit the board to focus on his job as chairman and CEO of
his new company 12 Entrepreneuring, will get bumped upstairs to chairman
emeritus. Bonnie will also remain CEO, a position he has held since March
2000.
The network said Bonnie’s efforts as CEO have helped moved the firm into the
forefront of being a global media company as well as creating e-commerce
platforms that connect buyers, sellers and suppliers throughout its sales
channel. Bonnie also presided over the ZDNet acquisition.
A former managing director at investment firm Tiger Management, Bonnie
partnered with CNET founder Halsey Minor in 1993 as the company’s third
employee and third investor, and served as CNET’s COO, CFO and vice chairman
before being elected CEO.
“Shelby has been here from the beginning and has helped build one of the
strongest franchises on the Internet
and in the IT supply chain,” said Bud Colligan, a member of the CNET
Networks board. “Shelby has been of critical importance to achieving the
strategic growth that CNET has attained so far, and we believe he is the
right man to take CNET Networks to the next level.”
In other CNET board news, Randall T. Mays, chief financial officer of Clear
Channel Communications Inc., was appointed to the board of directors,
presumably to fill Bonnie’s newly-vacated board slot.
In seven years at Clear Channel, Mays has been part of the company’s global
media growth with approximately 1,120 radio stations, 750,000 outdoor
advertising displays, and 19 television stations in the U.S. as well as 240
radio stations internationally.
CNET is a direct competitor of internet.com, the parent of this web site.
