John French Has Joined Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips as Senior Advisor

By Jim Elliott, President James G. Elliott Co., Inc.

July 20, 2021

I am pleased to congratulate John French on his new role as Senior Advisor at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips.  John is a good friend and a real star in the media business.  This relationship makes good sense and should be very successful.

Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips, the investment bank focused on the media, marketing, information, and technology industries, is pleased to announce that John French has joined the firm as Senior Advisor.  John was one of the B2B media industry’s most prominent and successful CEOs. He was President of PRIMEDIA’s B2B division when it was sold to Wasserstein & Co. and remained in that role when the company was renamed Prism Business Media. During his time at PRIMEDIA and Prism he oversaw average CAGR digital growth of 50% a year. Later, when Prism acquired Penton Media, John became CEO of the industry’s largest company, Penton Media.

His next role after running Penton Media was as CEO of Cygnus Business Media, where he created digital platforms for each of the brands and then successfully sold the company in several parts. Earlier in his career, he spent time working for some of the other major players in B2B media, including IDG, PennWell and CMP Publications.

Now John advises senior managers on business transformation and other important issues. He has done this for the past six years at French LLC in partnership with his wife, Nancy, the company’s COO. He will continue in his advisory role with the clients of French LLC.

John is a graduate of Boston College and he completed the Executive Management Program at Columbia Business School and the Publishing Executive Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. 

Reed Phillips, Managing Partner of Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips said, “John has been CEO of some of the world’s largest B2B media companies where he excelled in creating value for investors. His expertise extends beyond media to include marketing services, events, technology, SaaS and data/analytics. We are delighted he is joining us. His experience and skills will be valuable additions to our M&A expertise.”

You can contact John French at j.french@dp.oaklins.com or 201-513-1000.

Source: Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips https://dp.oaklins.com/