PROVO, UTAH – December 3, 2008 – The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced the appointment of Howard Hochhauser as Chief Financial Officer. Hochhauser, currently CFO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE:MSO), will join TGN in early January. Current CFO David Rinn will lead a newly established Strategy and Corporate Development group.
“I am very, very pleased to have Howard Hochhauser join The Generations Network as CFO,” said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of TGN. “Howard brings over 15 years of broad media and online content experience, bolstered by years of working with a solid base of loyal consumers who are similar in profile to ours. His expertise lends additional insights into our business as we grow our core user base and seek to further transform how people all over the world explore their family history online.”
“The Generations Network has built one of the most compelling subscription internet businesses today,” said Hochhauser. “I am delighted to be joining a first rate management team, as we leverage the business model to capitalize on the growth opportunities that are clearly ahead for us.”
Current CFO David Rinn has served in the position for the past four years. He will continue to report to CEO Tim Sullivan in his new role.
In commenting on Rinn’s new position and the company’s new corporate development group, Sullivan added, “David Rinn’s contributions to TGN as CFO have been remarkable, as shown clearly by our strong balance sheet and the financial success we’ve achieved in the current economic environment. When we recently committed ourselves to an expanded and more concerted focus on corporate development and strategic partnerships, David was the natural choice to fill this key role. We’re both excited about the chance to augment our organic growth through strategic opportunities that fit our company mission to connect families across distance and time.”
“I am pleased to lead this new focus for TGN,” said Rinn. “With our company currently enjoying great success on many fronts, it is an exciting time to explore new avenues of growth. We believe we have a real opportunity to further add to a great company.”
Howard Hochhauser has spent more than eight years at MSLO and has served as CFO since July, 2006. As CFO, Hochhauser played a pivotal role in determining MSLO’s business strategy and capital allocation process and has oversight responsibility for certain key administrative functions, including investor relations and corporate communications. Hochhauser joined MSLO in May 2000. Prior to becoming Acting CFO, he served as the company’s Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations, beginning in March 2002, overseeing MSLO’s financial planning and budgeting as well as investor relations initiatives, and acting as the primary contact for the company within the investment community. From 1996 to 2000, Hochhauser was at Bear, Stearns & Co. in the equity research department where he most recently served as Vice President. Previously, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston and KPMG Peat Marwick.
Hochhauser, a certified public accountant, has a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston University. He and his wife, Cindy, will be re-locating to Park City, Utah with their two children.
David Rinn has served as CFO of The Generations Network since June, 2004, and managed the accounting, financial reporting, human resources and legal functions. Prior to his work at TGN, Rinn spent eleven years at Microsoft Corporation, in a variety of roles including CFO of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Business Group, general manager of Finance and Administration, CFO of HomeAdvisor Technologies, senior director of Product Group Finance, and director of Business Development. Earlier in his career, David worked in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. Rinn holds a Masters of Business Administration from The Anderson School at UCLA and a Bachelors Degree in Geology from Vassar College in New York.
About The Generations Network, Inc.
The Generations Network, through its flagship Ancestry.com property, is the world’s leading resource for online family history. Ancestry.com has local websites in nine countries and has digitized and put online over 7 billion names and 26,000 historical records collections over the past ten years. Since July, 2006, Ancestry.com users have created more than 8.1 million family trees containing 780 million profiles and 15 million photographs and stories. The Generations Network also includes myfamily.com, Genealogy.com, Rootsweb.ancestry.com, MyCanvas.com, dna.ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker. More than 7.6 million unique visitors spent over 4.5 million hours on a TGN website in October, 2008 (comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide).
Web sites: http://www.ancestry.com/
http://www.myfamily.com/
http://www.genealogy.com/
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
http://www.mycanvas.com/
http://www.dna.ancestry.com/
http://www.familytreemaker.com/
