ABC Gets New Chair

By: Robert Troutbeck has been unanimously elected as chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations' board of directors, effective immediately. He succeeds Michael Browner and will serve out the remainder of Browner's one-year term; he will also be eligible for re-election at the November board meeting.

Troutbeck is president of Troutbeck Chernoff in Toronto and, until yesterday, served as vice chairman of the board of directors at ABC. Troutbeck worked on several committees and most notably spearheaded the creation of the ABC Newspaper Reader Profile Service.

"This is a very big honor," Troutbeck said in a statement. "However, the strength of the structure at ABC is that I am just one person in an amazing group of people on the ABC board and on the ABC staff. It will be a pleasure to serve as its chairman."

Troutbeck comes from the agency-side and has worked in executive positions at McCann-Erickson in Canada, eventually serving on its board of directors. During his time at Troutbeck Chernoff, an advertising company with an emphasis in healthcare, the company created the Medical Media Study, considered the benchmark for medical readership and product data.

Browning, who was elected as chairman in 2002, is stepping down. He recently retired from General Motors where he was the executive director, media and marketing operations. As a result he resigned from the ABC board. "The Audit Bureau of Circulations staff and board consists of some of the most professional people with whom I've had the pleasure to be associated," Browner said in a statement. "I take great pride in having served on the board and, for the past couple of years, as its chairman. It is one of the highlights of my career."

Technically, there are no set term limits for the chairmanship.