CNBC President Mark Hoffman to step down in September

Mark Hoffman, president of CNBC since 2005 and chairman of the board since 2015, announced Tuesday that he will be stepping down on September 1. 12.

Hoffman leaves spontaneously. NBCUniversal appointed Cesar Conde to oversee NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC in May 2020 to bring more central leadership to the group.

KC Sullivan will return to replace Hoffman as the new president of CNBC. Sullivan has spent the past two years as President and General Manager of NBCUniversal Advertising and Global Partnerships, based in London. Prior to that, he was President and Managing Director of CNBC International and CFO of CNBC.

Sullivan will return to the United States for his new role. Conde wrote in a note to NBCUniversal staff that Hoffman will remain as an advisor during the transition period.

“Mark has overseen the continued steady growth of CNBC as a global brand for business and financial news,” said Condy. “No business news organization comes close to the scope and influence of CNBC, which is a true testament to Mark’s leadership.”

CNBC is one of NBCUniversal’s most profitable assets, even as millions of Americans drop linear cable TV subscriptions every year. Hoffman, 65, has increased his profitability at CNBC in 16 of the 17 years he has run the company. CNBC is set to increase its profitability again in 2022, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“We are in business, so it is important to note that we have never been more profitable, setting record after record in financial performance, year after year, as we have maneuvered through economic cycles, external events and the secular historical change that accompanied the information age.” Hoffman said in a note to CNBC employees.

Hoffman first joined CNBC in 1997 before leaving in 2001 to take a series of leadership positions at local television stations. He returned to CNBC in 2005 and immediately lobbied for a 50% equity stake in CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia from Dow Jones, as well as a 25% stake in CNBC World.

With financial control of its international holdings, Hoffman expanded CNBC Television’s reach and turned his attention to growing CNBC’s digital business. CNBC.com has grown sixfold in the past six years, with its unique monthly readership growing from about 30 million to nearly 200 million.

He focused on consistency on the cable network side, which still makes up the majority of CNBC’s revenue. Hoffman has renewed contracts with notable television personalities including Jim Kramer, Joe Kernan, Becky Kwik, David Faber, Karl Quintanilla and Andrew Ross Sorkin to maintain CNBC’s leadership as a trusted source of news, especially for wealthy Americans.

“Once defined as a moribund local cable channel that many thought would never fully recover from the bursting of the dotcom bubble, CNBC today is a global multimedia powerhouse, far outstripping its weight in the digital age,” Hoffman said.

While CNBC is no longer ranked by Nielsen, CNBC TV is ranked #1. It has been ranked number one among all business news platforms for 29 consecutive years in reaching Americans who earn more than $125,000 annually, according to Ipsos surveys.

disclosure: ComcastNBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.