Joe Philport to Retire from TAB CEO Role

Media industry research veteran Joe Philport will retire from his role as CEO of industry body the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement (TAB) at the end of the year.

Established in 1933, TAB is a non-profit organization which acts as an independent auditor for out-of-home (OOH) media in the US. Philport (pictured) joined in 2002, when the industry still relied on counts of people passing billboards. Since then, he has led TAB's involvement in building a system which measures audiences who actually see advertising, and which now includes ratings for transit media and digital billboards. In recognition of this achievement, ARF presented Philport with its gold innovation prize at its 2009 Great Mind Awards. Prior to joining TAB, he was SVP Worldwide Media Research Director at Y&R, and he held senior media research roles at Nielsen, Arbitron, Competitive Media Reporting, and AGB Television Research.

As a search for a new leader is conducted, Philport will be replaced on an interim basis by Nancy Fletcher, President & CEO of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), but will continue to serve as a consultant to the TAB Board. In addition, media metrics firm Sequent Partners has been selected by the Board to help review the changing needs of the OOH industry in relation to new media, and formulate a new TAB leadership plan.

TAB Chairman Mary Sheehan, who also serves as Senior Director of Media Strategy and Planning at ESPN, comments: 'Joe has been the steward and strategic force behind TAB Out of Home Ratings, making it the official currency for out of home measurement, and his contributions cannot be overstated. TAB has ambitious goals for OOH measurement and we are confident that working with Sequent Partners and Nancy Fletcher to evaluate and plan, we will be on a path to achieve them.'

Web site: www.tabonline.com .