Pandora Appoints Brian McAndrews As CEO

(RTTNews) - Pandora Media, Inc. (P) said Wednesday that its Board of Directors has appointed Brian McAndrews to succeed Joe Kennedy as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman, effective immediately.

The announcement concludes a transition process that began when Kennedy announced his decision to retire in March.

In its search for a new CEO, the Board sought a candidate who could build on Pandora's leading position in internet radio and accelerate its fast-growing advertising business, Pandora said.

"We had very specific criteria for our new CEO, and we were very strategic about finding the right person -- Brian is that person," said Tim Westergren, Pandora's founder and chief strategy officer.

Following senior positions at General Mills and ABC, McAndrews, took over Avenue A, a small digital agency in Seattle in 1999, and as President and CEO built it into aQuantive, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) for $6 billion in 2007. After serving as a senior vice president at Microsoft and running Microsoft's Advertiser & Publisher Solutions group, McAndrews joined Madrona as an investing partner in 2009.

In addition to his work at Madrona, McAndrews currently serves on the boards of The New York Times Co., Grubhub Seamless and AppNexus.