Less than a year after stepping into the CEO role at Comscore, Bryan Wiener is stepping out of it.
In a statement late Sunday night, Wiener cited what he called “irreconcilable differences” with the board over how to execute the measurement company’s strategy.
And he’s not the only one heading for the exit. Comscore president Sarah Hofstetter, who joined less than six months ago to help the company expand its client base to the buy side, is resigning in solidarity with Wiener’s stance. The two spent many years working alongside each other, most recently at Dentsu digital media agency 360i.
A member of Comscore’s board, Dale Fuller, is taking over as the interim CEO while Comscore hunts for a full-time replacement. Comscore has no plans to refill Hofstetter’s role, but did make several new point appointments, including former GroupM chairman Irwin Gotlieb, SoFi CMO Joanne Bradford and Kathi Love, former president and CEO of GfK MRI.
But the abrupt departure of two executives in a single day speaks to turmoil at the top of a company that’s no stranger to it.
Comscore replaced its CEO and CFO in 2016 in the midst of an investigation into its accounting practices. The following year, the company was briefly delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market after struggling to conduct an SEC-mandated audit in a timely manner.
Wiener, who officially took the reins as CEO last May after spending six months on the board, was meant to help bring stability to Comscore’s chaos. His strategy involved refocusing the company around cross-video measurement.
“We’re starting to put some of the building blocks in place to move past the events of the last couple of years, and I was excited to have the chance to lead this comeback,” Wiener told AdExchanger at the time.
During his tenure Wiener did manage to launch a new product and ink a deal with Nexstar Media Group to become the local station owner’s sole provider of metrics in 97 out of 100 markets.
In speaking with AdExchanger when he first took the job, Wiener said he wasn’t looking to make “dramatic changes,” and that he’d worked directly with the board to help develop Comscore’s go-forward strategy.
Wiener’s to-do list as CEO had five primary items on it: to build optimism in the market around Comscore; “create and amplify a high-performance culture;” invest heavily in product innovation; streamline operations; and accelerate the company’s go-to-market strategy.
“I think all of those are achievable,” Wiener had said. “None of that is really rocket science.”
Comscore did not respond in time to a request for comment.
