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New York, NY – January 6, 2021 – Christian Baesler, Chief Operating Officer, who is leading all revenue functions for BuzzFeed, Inc. (NASDAQ: BZFD), a premier digital media company for the most diverse, most online, and most socially engaged generation the world has ever seen, today named Ken Blom Executive Vice President of Business Strategy and Operations and Edgar Hernandez Chief Revenue Officer.
Together Blom and Hernandez will take on larger roles across BuzzFeed, Inc.’s business organization led by Baesler. Blom will oversee product development and strategy that will pioneer the marketplace, helping brands adapt to new platforms and content formats. Hernandez will bring those products to market through innovative marketing partnerships and sales opportunities that drive revenue growth for the company. Hernandez will lead the newly combined sales organization and focus on strengthening BuzzFeed, Inc.'s deep understanding of the marketplace to create products and services to best serve them through a number of opportunities including brand partnerships, brand strategy, experiential, partner solutions and more.
BuzzFeed, Inc. is home to some of the most well-known brands and franchises in digital media including BuzzFeed, Tasty, BuzzFeed News, HuffPost and Complex Networks. The company’s content, commerce and media capabilities drive real world action, inspiring its audience of more than 107M visitors monthly what to watch, eat, read, buy and obsess over next.
As a BuzzFeed veteran Blom has been an integral part of the company’s business operations for nearly a decade. He most recently oversaw BuzzFeed’s sales division,business operations and strategy, leading the group to drive record-breaking revenue. He also helped to unify BuzzFeed’s business organization, aligning the company’s commerce and advertising divisions to maximize value for partners. Under Blom’s leadership, BuzzFeed launched Lighthouse, it’s industry-recognized data services suite which has been used by every single client since it’s launch in March 2021.
Hernandez joined BuzzFeed, Inc. when it became a public company and acquired Complex Networks last month, serving as CRO. He brings a wealth of experience, having been part of leading Complex Network’s sales and client marketing for over ten years driving product innovation and significant revenue growth during all phases of diversification within media, branded entertainment, video sponsorships, including Hot Ones, programmatic, agency and experiential for ComplexCon and ComplexLand. He's also been at the forefront of helping usher in new diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives through a program to help small BIPOC business owners receive mentorship and marketing support. Herndandez was also responsible for finding funding for ComplexCon Community Week which helps support multiple local non profit organizations. Hernandez has also focused his time on recruiting more LatinX into the media industry.
“I’m excited to bring together the best of brands in digital media under one unified sales organization to bring the market an optimized offering that will help move the industry forward with BuzzFeed, Inc. as the driving force,” said Blom. “The future of branded content, media and innovation is all encompassed within what our brands have to offer.”
"BuzzFeed, Inc 's unified offering solves a very important need for brand partners, it provides the opportunity for brands who are looking for market moving influence and contextual scale,” said Hernandez. “Complex Networks historically was a starting point for influence, but now in combination with BuzzFeed, Inc.’s properties we can carry it through all the way to critical mass, allowing brand partners the access to our unique communities, and full funnel product suite that best service the need at the right moment in their life cycle."
As part of Baesler’s leadership team Nilla Ali has been named Executive Vice President of Commerce and Rich Reid, Head of Studios for BuzzFeed, Inc. Brendan Kelly, Andrew Guendjoian and Jeff Mazzacano will all continue to serve as Senior Vice Presidents of Client Partnerships reporting to Hernandez and be essential leaders driving BuzzFeed’s go to market strategy.
About BuzzFeed, Inc.
BuzzFeed, Inc. is home to the best of the Internet. Across food, news, pop culture and commerce, our brands drive conversation and inspire what audiences watch, read, buy, and obsess over next. Born on the Internet in 2006, BuzzFeed, Inc. is committed to making it better: providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content on the Internet more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring our audience to live better lives. We'll continue to recruit the best founders and creators to join us in this mission, with more additions like Complex Networks and HuffPost to come.
Contacts
Media Contacts
Carole Robinson: pr@buzzfeed.com
Shira Mahler: shira.mahler@buzzfeed.com
Investor Relations
Amita Tomkoria, BuzzFeed: ir@buzzfeed.com