Helen Alexander leaves The Economist
Jinfo Blog

18th April 2008

Item

Ms. Alexander, chief executive of The Economist Group, is scheduled to leave the company mid-July, at the group's annual general meeting. http://digbig.com/4wsrn She will become an adviser to Bain Capital http://www.baincapital.com/ and will continue with her non-executive positions at Centrica http://digbig.com/4wsrp and Rolls Royce http://digbig.com/4wsrq. According to a report in The Times she is seeking additional non-executive roles. http://digbig.com/4wsrr. She is a trustee of the Tate, http://digbig.com/4wsrs, chairman of PPA http://digbig.com/4wsrt, the magazine industry trade association, and, in 2004, was awarded a CBE http://digbig.com/4wsrw for services to publishing. During her time at The Economist she is credited with almost doubling the magazine's circulation and with expanding the group internationally, especially in India and China. She has also driven the expansion of CFO, a publication for finance executives, which has a number of regional editions. http://digbig.com/4wsrx She will be replaced by Andrew Rashbass http://digbig.com/4wsry, who has been publisher and managing director of The Economist since 2005. Previously he was managing director of Economist.com. In an interview with the Press Gazette last August http://digbig.com/4wssa he spoke of how the Economist was bucking the trend in declining magazine reading and was finding an increasing readership in the under 35s. Ms. Alexander's move to Bain Capital is part of the trend of senior media executives becoming advisers to private equity groups: Greg Dyke, formerly director general of the BBC joined Apax Partners in 2004 http://digbig.com/4wssb; Clive Hollick, former chief executive of United Business Media is with KKR http://digbig.com/4wssc; and, Tim Schoonmaker, formerly head of Emap Radio, works in the media practice at DLJ Merchant Banking Partners http://digbig.com/4wssd, part of Credit Suisse.

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