CBS Financial Chief Reynolds To Step Down In July

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

CBS Corp. (CBS) Chief Financial Officer Fred Reynolds will step down next month and retire in August after a 38-year career in finance and business strategy.

The company said a successor for Reynolds, who has worked for CBS and several of its predecessors, including the former Viacom and Westinghouse Electric Corp., since 1994, would be named soon.

Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said Reynolds "has guided our finance division through virtually every major transformative event of the last 15 years." They include the company's acquisition by Westinghouse in 1995, its Infinity acquisition in 1996, the Viacom-CBS merger in 2000 and the launch of CBS as a stand-alone company in 2006.

Reynolds called it "tremendously gratifying" to be part of the transformation of CBS into "a leader in the global media marketplace."

He will step down as CFO on July 20 but remain executive vice president while working with Moonves and other executives on the transition of his duties before his Aug. 15 retirement.

Reynolds has been CBS's financial chief since its separation from Viacom Inc. (VIA). Both companies, and nearly all of the media business in general, have been struggling amid a worldwide drop in advertising spending.

CBS's shares were recently down 4.3% at $7.03 amid a broader market downturn.

-By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089; [e-mail]