Telerate Reorg: Robson, Davies Named To New Posts

Dow Jones Telerate has reorganized its sales and marketing group, promoting James Davies to vice president of sales and marketing for Telerate's Americas group and making Jon Robson, who has been named vice president of strategic marketing, a direct report of Julian Childs, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Telerate.

Robson previously was vice president of marketing for Telerate's Americas group. The marketing employees within Telerate's TTRS group will continue to report to him. Davies, who was president of Dow Jones Telerate, Canada, reports to the senior vice president of the Americas group, Bernard Battista. Robson previously reported to Battista. Martin Sinnott, vice president of Telerate sales, reports to Davies, as does vice president of customer support Mary Ivaliotis.

The replacement to fill Davies' previous position has not yet been found. There are no plans to fill Robson's old post.

Davies, who has relocated to the vendor's Harborside, N.J., offices, has responsibility over sales, marketing and customer support in the United States. According to a Telerate spokesperson, Davies "has even broader responsibilities than Robson used to have, because the vice president for sales [Sinnott] reports to him, and also the vice president whose responsibilities include the customer support function [Ivaliotis]." The spokesperson characterizes Davies as "the number-two man to Battista." Ivaliotis previously reported to Robson, while Sinnott reported to Battista.

Robson's new position is more of "a corporate job," according to the spokesperson, with responsibility for helping define "key product and business strategies to shape the future."

The spokesperson says that Robson "will work with the global marketing people in the other regions, but they won't report to him -- they'll report to their regional people, just like Ivaliotis will report to Davies."

A source says that the probable reason for the reorganization is that "Robson is less of a manager and administrator than he is a strategist and visionary, if those words aren't too overwrought. And this is a way to channel those talents without interfering with the smooth running of the operation."

Davies, who the source says has "presumably impressed management with his running of Canada" is being promoted in the hopes that he will "bring some sort of administrative order to the marketing and sales groups." The source says that "the rumor is that Davies is being groomed for Battista's job, so Battista can go back to Dow Jones."

When asked whether Robson -- who, like Battista, reports to Childs -- is now on a par with Battista on the corporate ladder, the spokesperson says: "Battista has an operational job running a whole region -- he's responsible for a huge amount of business, and people, and budgets -- it's a whole different thing. Robson is a corporate v.p. You can't compare."

Meanwhile, the spokesperson says, there is a "long-range Dow Jones plan to move as many people from Harborside to South Brunswick as is feasible and to also move those people from Telerate who need to be in Manhattan to our World Financial Center offices." The spokesperson says that Telerate recently opened a new "demo room" on the 18th floor of the World Financial Center. "That's to support our New York sales and customer support force." Still, the spokesperson says, the vendor has no plans to close its Harborside offices.