Business publisher Emap has appointed BSkyB data boss Duncan Painter – the former head of ClarityBlue – as chief executive.
The company, which is owned by Guardian Media Group and Apax, publishes Broadcast, Drapers and Retail Week, and runs trade shows such as the Cannes advertising festival, has been hunting for a new chief since David Gilbertson left in May. He had been at Emap three years.
Painter started his career at Hitachi Data Systems in 1994, and then had a spell at Sand Technology before joining Clarity Blue in January 2000.
Just over five years later he led the management team which secured the £85m sale of the business to Experian. At the time, the scale of the deal raised a few eyebrows in the industry as the company had only been trading seven years.
Having integrated ClarityBlue in Experian, Painter took on the role of chief executive of Experian Integrated Marketing, leaving in January 2010 to become managing director of BSkyB’s customer intelligence unit, Sky IQ. The division provides data and information services to BSkyB as well as other companies such as Centrica and Zurich.
Irina Hemmers, chairman of Emap and a partner at Apax, said: “Duncan has extensive experience of leading successful business-to-business and data companies and was the stand-out candidate for the role.”
William Mellis, BSkB’s group director of business performance, is to succeed Painter.
