Open Road Names AOL/HuffPo vet Christopher Davis EVP and COO

(PRESS RELEASE) NEW YORK, NY: Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company, announced today that Christopher Davis will become executive vice president and chief operating officer. Davis, a veteran finance executive for a wide range of start-ups and one of The Huffington Post's early employees, was previously the senior vice president of business operations for AOL/The Huffington Post Media Group.

At AOL and The Huffington Post, Davis managed the Finance and Business Operations departments. During his tenure, The Huffington Post grew from 8 employees to more than 250, revenue was on track to increase from less than $1 million to more than $60 million and traffic to the site grew from less than 1 million unique visitors to more than 50 million unique visitors.

In his new role, Davis will oversee operations and financial matters for Open Road. He joins an executive team with a wide range of experience and success including cofounder and CEO Jane Friedman, cofounder and award winning film producer Jeffrey Sharp, children’s publishing advisor Barbara Marcus, EVP Luke Parker Bowles, Publisher Brendan Cahill and Chief Marketing Officer Rachel Chou.

Friedman said: "Open Road has enjoyed a wide range of success since its launch over two years ago and now we are excited to take the company to the next level. Chris has a remarkable track record helping to grow new media start-ups and we are excited to have him join us on the Open Road."

Davis said: "The combination of Open Road as a disruptive digital publisher with their great proprietary online platform felt like a natural fit for me after HuffingtonPost which also helped disrupt a traditional industry. Jane has built a great organization with very talented people and I am excited to be part of the team."

Davis starts on Oct. 17 and will report to Friedman. Prior to joining The Huffington Post, Davis served in a senior finance role at a number of start-ups in New York City including Exhale, Madstone, a film production, distribution & exhibition company and Good Machine, an independent film production company. Before his start-up experience commenced, Davis worked for Coopers and Lybrand Consulting.

This announcement builds upon Open Road's recent growth which includes its Series B financing over the summer and the addition of a wide range of titles to its growing catalog including books from legendary authors like Alice Walker and Leon Uris.