Pandora CEO and co-founder out

By GABRIELA SANTOS

After a rough weekend, it has been confirmed that Pandora’s CEO and co-founder Tim Westergren will be stepping down as CEO.

Techcrunch reported that Westergren became CEO of Pandora shortly after its founding for two years and stepped back into the role in 2016, stating that Pandora was “on the cusp of realizing an extraordinary vision.”

Due to the recent tumultuousness of the music industry, licensing costs have continued to be a problem for the company, which has struggled to expand outside of the U.S. companies like Spotify and Apple Music have also been putting more pressure on Pandora.

Naveen Chopra, the company’s CFO as of February, will be filling in as interim CFO while the board of directors searches for a replacement.

President Mike Herring and CMO Nick Bartle will also be leaving the company. Westergren’s will also be leaving the board of directors. He will be replaced by Jason Hirschhorn, the CEO of “digital content curation” company ReDEF Group, who worked at Myspace, Sling, and served as MTV’s Chief Digital Officer.

This has been a widely covered topic, especially considering the recent shakeup that happened at Uber. The tech industry is seeing a shift in the kinds of people they need in positions of power, perhaps in an attempt to focus on the newer generations of users.

There is a consensus among people of all levels that the future ahead is wildly unpredictable. Whoever takes over for Pandora will certainly feel that.