Verizon's Top Media Executive Marni Walden to Leave

Verizon Communications Inc. said its top media executive, Marni Walden, will be switching to an advisory role at the end of the year and leaving the company in early 2018.

Ms. Walden oversees the company's media and digital business, including its Yahoo and AOL properties, a role she took over in 2015. The 50-year-old was considered a potential successor to CEO Lowell McAdam.

Her departure comes after it became clear to Ms. Walden that she was unlikely to win the CEO job, according to one person familiar with the matter.

"Marni helped build our wireless business, starting as a sales representative in a store and grew into an inspirational leader and role model for so many at Verizon," Mr. McAdam said in a statement. She "will leave us in a strong competitive position."

One of her lieutenants, Tim Armstrong, who is CEO of the division that oversees Yahoo and AOL, will now report directly to Mr. McAdam. Her other responsibility of overseeing Verizon's telematics business will be handed to John Stratton, who as president of global operations oversees the wireless business.

Write to Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2017 16:44 ET (20:44 GMT)