Mark Hoffman, president of CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) will be stepping down from the post on September 12, CNBC reported. KC Sullivan will replace Hoffman as CNBC’s new president. 

Who is Mark Hoffman? 

Mark Hoffman joined CNBC in 1997. He left in 2001 for a series of leadership roles in a number of local TV stations. He returned to CNBC in 2005 and pushed to acquire 50% equity interests in CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia from Dow Jones, as well as 25% stake in CNBC World.  

Hoffman’s success was caused by his focus on CNBC’s digital business. CNBC.com saw a sixfold rise in the last six years and its unique monthly readership grew from 30 million to 200 million. 

On the cable network, Hoffman was focused on ensuring consistency. The cable network continues to be the major source of revenue for CNBC. Hoffman has spearheaded renewal of contracts for noteworthy television personalities, including Jim Cramer, Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, David Faber, Carl Quintanilla and Andrew Ross Sorkin. 

“Once defined as a moribund domestic cable channel that many thought would never fully recover from the dotcom bubble bursting, CNBC is today a global multimedia powerhouse, punching far above its weight in the digital age,” Hoffman once said. 

CNBC TV has consistently ranked No. 1 among all business news platforms for 29 consecutive years in reaching Americans who earn above $125,000 a year, according to Ipsos surveys.

Resignation

Among NBC Universal’s most consistently
profitable assets, CNBC comes towards the top. This, at a time when millions of
people in the United States are giving up linear cable television subscriptions
every year. 65-year-old Hoffman has ensured rising profitability in 16 out of
his 17 years at CNBC.

“We are in the business of business so it’s important to note we’ve never been more profitable, setting record after record in financial performance, year after year, as we maneuvered through economic cycles, exogenous events and the historic secular change that accompanied the information age,” Hoffman said in a note to CNBC employees.