Vizio hired Adam Townsend, who previously spent a collective 12 years at Showtime Networks and CBS in finance roles, as chief financial officer of the consumer-electronics brand.
Townsend, who exited as Showtime’s CFO in March, takes over the role at Vizio after president/COO Ben Wong had been handling chief financial officer duties.
Prior to moving to CBS Corp.-owned Showtime in October 2018, Townsend held multiple roles at CBS, including EVP, corporate finance and investor relations, where he led the company’s treasury operations and global investor communications strategy. In addition, he played key roles in CBS’s outdoor advertising business and the CBS Radio.
Prior to CBS, Townsend worked at E-Trade as managing director of corporate strategy and investor relations, and before that was an equity research analyst at JPMorgan.
“Adam’s exceptional record of financial operational experience within content, advertising, and streaming-based businesses — along with over a decade of media industry analysis — makes him a great addition to the existing talent at Vizio,” founder/CEO William Wang said in announcing Townsend’s hire.
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Vizio is looking to grow its TV and audio hardware business by expanding its presence in the fast-growing connected-TV marketplace through its SmartCast smart TV platform and its advertiser-direct business unit, Vizio Ads.
Townsend commented, “Vizio is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the rapid shift toward digital video consumption through a powerful combination of hardware excellence, software innovation and data analytics.”
