Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Stepping Down, or Stepping Up? DRR's Nisselson Makes A Change

Last week, I read on the Digital Railroad Member's blog that Charles Mauzy, currently the President, now get's promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Nisselson? He gets promoted to Chairman of the Board. Atleast that's how I saw it. All I thought was "Good for Evan, and Good for Charles. Next..."

How's it getting reported elsewhere?
EPUK reports "Digital Railroad (DRR) founder Evan Nisselson has stepped down as the company’s CEO. The post will be taken over by current DRR president Charles Mauzy, with Nisselson continuing as company chairman."

Stepping Down?

(Continued after the Jump)

That piece was then picked up by PDNPulse, here.

I see Even all over the place. That picture on the right is one I made with my iPhone while at a White House News Photographer's Association conference, where Evan was on a panel about the future of still/video. He's out championing DRR, and what they're trying to do for photographers. The role of the CEO is to manage the day-to-day operations, the role of the Chairman is to be much more strategic about the company. With Evan on the road, it actually makes much more sense that he step up into a role that's better suited to him, and leave the day-to-day operations to Charles. My guess is that, as founder of DRR, it's taken some time for Evan to get comfortable with anyone other than himself sheparding his "baby" along from day to day, just like a first-time parent who is unsure about leaving their child with someone else. It takes time and trust to build before you're comfortable with that. It seems Evan is now comfortable enough with Charles to do just that.

So, I called Evan, to get his take on all this. Evan said "I got several calls, among them from Reza (a NGS photographer, ) and others, all of them are supportive of the evolution, and look forward to this helping the Digital Railroad community." That seems pretty much in line with what I thought.

So, to be doubly sure I was thinking things through, I next talked to Charles. Charles said "Evan will continue to, and in fact, expand his role as spokesperson for Digital Railroad and will continue to provide inspiration and vision as the Chairman of the Board, something he's done from the company's inception."

Yup, that pretty much is what I thought, and why I didn't write about this in the first place. It's essentially a non-news event, suitable, as they did, for a mention on their blog.

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

please let this be the end of your series of blatant digital railroad blowjobs. sometimes this stuff is hard to stomach and it makes you look like you're in their back pocket.

please stop and return to the good stuff, like outing evildoers like getty, uspresswire, calsportmedia and others.

these digital railroad cheerleader posts are the result of effective pr efforts targeted squarely at you.

John Harrington said...

Hmmm? Come again? Not sure why you're so anti-DRR. Between them, and PhotoShelter, one of them, or both, will be the kind of solution (or the solution) of the future (until someone else comes along).

If we are to be critical of Getty/et al, that means we still need an outlet - a platform - to monetize our images. Whether PS, DRR, IPNStock, or our own branded standalone solution, one will be what we need.

I've done pieces critical of all sorts of organizations, and said nice things about others.

And, as someone who knows all too well the PR machine that churns throughout the capitalistic world, let me tell you first hand - they did NOT make any efforts towards me, it was the other way around. I read the blog, I dismissed it as a non-news event. No big deal. Then I see an ill-informed take using the words "stepping down" spreading so I write something to correct it, and *I* call Evan and Charles to get their take.

Don't read anything more into it than I've already expressed.

Newer Post Older Post