Posted on 08/10/2010 3:31:49 PM PDT by STARWISE
Desiree Rogers, former White House social secretary and Illinois Lottery director, has been named chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company, the Chicago-based publisher of Ebony and JET magazines, the company announced today.
Rogers, who left the White House early this year after two uninvited guests crashed a state dinner in November, had been working as a consultant to the company since June 5.
Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of the company’s founder who held the CEO title, will remain as chairman.
The two women are known to be good friends.
“Desiree has a proven track record of successful business leadership,” Rice said in a statement.
Rogers will oversee day-to-day operations and be responsible for aligning core business strategies for all of the company’s brands.
Rogers said in a statement, “I consider it an honor to help continue the 68-year legacy of such a phenomenal company and its iconic brands.”
Johnson Publishing, beset by falling advertising revenues, recently started a management reshuffling, beginning with the June 3 announcement that the company is no longer for sale and the hiring that same day of Amy DuBois Barnett as the new editor in chief of Ebony magazine.
On July 13, the company announced that its president and chief operating officer, Anne Sempowski Ward, had resigned.
Johnson Publishing also announced today that it has named Rodrigo A. Sierra, who worked for eight years with Rogers in public affairs at Peoples Gas and is a former WGN Radio reporter, as chief marketing officer of Johnson Publishing. Rogers served as the first female and African-American president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.
Sierra, who also holds the title of senior vice president, most recently ran his own consulting firm, Sierra Public Affairs Consulting, and talked with Rogers about helping her in her consulting role at Johnson Publishing.
Sierra said when Rogers asked him about serving as marketing chief at Johnson Publishing Co., he appreciated the “history and legacy” of the Ebony and JET magazines and the Fashion Fair cosmetics line.
“Johnson Publishing is at a very important time in its history,” Sierra said in an interview. “The vision is to continue the legacy and to grow the brands.”
The September issue of Ebony will be the first to reflect the voice of its new editor-in-chief, Amy DuBois Barnett, who was hired in June. Barnett had previously transformed Teen People and Honey magazines.
The September issue of Ebony, on newsstands today, focuses on education, and coincides with Ebony’s hosting of its third roundtable to discuss issues of importance to the African-American community.
Said Sierra, “Through Ebony and JET, we want to create a dialogue with readers and give them a voice.”
A longtime fundraiser for President Barack Obama, Rogers was one of the top presidential campaign bundlers, raising more than $500,000. He’s also a friend.
In the early 1990s, Rogers got to know Obama well, working on a voter registration drive in the African-American wards of Chicago. In time, the relationship deepened because Obama married the “little sister” of Rogers' buddy Craig Robinson, a Princeton basketball teammate.
Rogers still remembers the speech that launched Obama’s first race for the Illinois Senate, when he was wowed by his friend’s “unbelievable” ability to communicate. It was “inspiring.” From that day forward, Rogers raised funds for all Obama campaigns, including his races for Illinois Senate, Congress and U.S. Senate.
Raising money for the presidential campaign required extensive contacts, but little persuasion. “People were so excited to help in any way they could. I’ve never seen anything like it.
”They’d ask 'what’s the maximum I can give?' You never get that.”
Despite his famous friends, Rogers is described as down-to-earth by his best friend, Education Secretary Arne Duncan. A frequent McDonald’s patron, Rogers “treats the homeless guys exactly how he treats Barack. I think that’s so rare,” said Duncan in an interview.
Unlike Duncan, Rogers is staying in Chicago during Obama’s White House run, but expects to continue as an informal adviser on the issues dear to him: business, education, and diversity.
Rogers helped raise money and plan for the inauguration. His priority was to make events open, like never before, to people from all walks of life. He worked especially hard to make sure older, pioneering civil rights activists attended, despite the shortage of tickets.
His ex-wife is Desiree Rogers, the former White House social secretary who got into trouble when a fame-seeking couple crashed the White House state dinner for the Indian prime minister in November 2009.
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She landed well.
I wonder if the “bus” left a mark.....
** Ping!
Cushy.
The difference between the left and the right is the left finds great jobs for people that take a fall. The right sends them to a wasteland where they become angry and turn to the left to trash the right and make a living. Two examples are David Stockman or John Dean.
Rogers was his earliest funder. he sucks as a money manager. Forbes magazine helped make him famous and wealthy which got Obama elected. One reason I cancelled forbes for good.
Laura Ingraham’s hysterically funny book, “Obama Diaries (#1 bestseller) does a number on Desiree that is falling-down funny.
Thanks for the heads up. I have been meaning to go get her new book.
The mag has now brought in a Hispanic male communications guy after bringing in a white Editor in Chief in June.
Some folks are howling.
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