MidOcean Partners (MidOcean) has added David Kieselstein to the firm’s Executive Board, effective 1 January 2018.
Kieselstein is serving as Vice Chairman, Business Services, and will work with the firm’s Executive Board to provide strategic guidance to MidOcean’s portfolio companies. As Vice Chairman, Business Services, Kieselstein will also work closely with the MidOcean investment team in the sourcing, evaluation and execution of new business services investments.
Kieselstein, who is recognised for his operational expertise in information services, most recently served as CEO of former MidOcean portfolio company Penton prior to its acquisition by Informa PLC in November 2016 for USD1.6 billion.
“David Kieselstein served as an outstanding leader of Penton over the past several years, helping us transform the business from a traditional print-based publisher into a leading professional information services business,” says Barrett Gilmer, Managing Director of MidOcean. “Not only has David successfully built and transformed some of the best-known B2B and consumer media brands and companies in the world, he has demonstrated an ability to turn around a company’s performance and build value for shareholders. We are very fortunate to add David’s tremendous strategic vision to our Executive Board.”
Kieselstein adds: “I am honoured to join the MidOcean Executive Board and look forward to collaborating with Ted Virtue, Barrett Gilmer and the rest of the MidOcean team to drive further transformative growth within the MidOcean portfolio and develop differentiated investment themes.”
Prior to taking the helm at Penton, Kieselstein served as Chief Executive Officer, North America of TNS, a division of WPP which provides high-quality market research insights to Fortune 500 clients in virtually all industries. During his tenure at TNS, he embarked on a full transformation of the company’s operations, which resulted in a significant improvement in profitability across TNS.
From 2006 to 2008, Kieselstein led Dun & Bradstreet’s Small Business Division, the company’s largest and fastest growing division. While at Dun & Bradstreet, Kieselstein integrated three distinct operations into a single, customer-centric business unit, and he launched several new product suites that accelerated overall performance.
Prior to Dun & Bradstreet, Kieselstein served in a range of key leadership roles at Time Warner. As Chief Executive of the Parenting Media Group, he repositioned the Parenting brand, resulting in 30 per cent revenue growth and the unseating of the long-time category leader within 18 months. As President and Chief Executive of the Personal Finance Media Group, Kieselstein created a partnership with CNN that resulted in the creation of CNNMoney, one of the world’s most successful personal finance web properties. Earlier in his career, he also held a number of marketing management positions at FORTUNE Magazine, and launched Time Inc.’s centralised direct marketing and database division.
