Nielsen hires McKinsey partner Steve Hasker as president, media products

Hasker will join the company next month and have a dual reporting function to company CEO David Calhoun and Itzhak Fisher, who was just promoted to executive vice president at Nielsen, with responsibility for global product leadership, emerging businesses and strategic planning.

In this new position, Hasker will direct strategy and development of Nielsen's media products and services, including measurement of television, online and mobile media, as well as the company's ongoing work around cross-media measurement. Jim O'Hara, who formerly led Media Product Leadership, is moving to Nielsen's Global Business Solutions division as the client service executive for emerging businesses, Nielsen said.

Hasker will also oversee Advertiser Solutions, a new business unit designed to help advertisers deliver the right messages to the right consumers, and improve marketing effectiveness and return on investment. In this respect, Hasker will work closely with Alan Gould and Ken Orkin, co-CEOs of Nielsen IAG, who have also been tasked with running the day-to-day Advertiser Solutions operation.

In 1998, Hasker joined McKinsey's global media, entertainment and information practice advising on issues of strategy, growth and innovation for leading companies in television, mobile telecoms, syndicated information, filmed entertainment, sports and online advertising.

Hasker is a regular guest lecturer at Columbia University, and his research into the influence of social networks on consumer behavior has been published in the Harvard Business Review. His writings on digital and online business models and marketing have been featured in the McKinsey Quarterly.