Arbitron Names New CTO As Kolessar Plans Retirement

Arbitron has appointed Taymoor Arshi as its new SVP and Chief Technology Officer, replacing Ron Kolessar who is set to retire this summer after 42 years service with the firm and its predecessor companies.

During his time at Arbitron, Kolessar has played a critical role in the design and development of the PPM audience measurement system and has also overseen the development of technology which encodes audio signals that are inaudible to the human ear and is the underlying technology for PPM. In 2005, Kolessar was recognised as an innovator by electronics publication EE Times in its Great Minds, Great Ideas project (www.mrweb.com/drno/news4927.htm ).

Arshi takes the reins from Kolessar after a 20 year career in the engineering and operations departments at Intel Corporation, where he most recently worked as General Manager, Manageability & Platform Software Division. He has a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a Doctorate in Computer Science from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

'Dr Arshi brings a breadth of experience in the technology areas critical to Arbitron's future - software and hardware engineering, multimedia, telephony & IP based software, wireless communications platforms, Internet/web - and others,' said Chairman, President and CEO Steve Morris. 'He will help us harness the widening array of technologies that are transforming the media, marketing and research industries.'

Arshi will report to Owen Charlebois, President, Technology, Research and Development and will be based out of the firm's Research and Technology Centre in Columbia, Maryland.

Web site is www.arbitron.com.