Infogroup CMO to leave firm

Slade Kobran

Infogroup CMO Slade Kobran will be leaving the firm, according to an Infogroup source. The source said Kobran would be leaving because “Infogroup is decentralizing marketing.”  

Kobran had served as Infogroup CMO since 2009. He began his career with Infogroup as VP of marketing at subsidiary infoUSA National Accounts in June 2006. He was promoted to SVP of marketing at Infogroup subsidiary Guideline in December 2008, and again in July 2008 when he was named SVP and director of marketing at Infogroup subsidiary Opinion Research Company International (ORC).

Prior to his tenure with Infogroup, Kobran served as the director of Dun and Bradstreet, a marketing services company. 

It is immediately unclear who will handle the firm's marketing or when Kobran will officially step down.

Infogroup recently filed a lawsuit against the company's founder, Vinod Gupta, for allegedly stealing confidential Infogroup information and using it to develop his new company Database101.com.

In July, Infogroup sold its research branch, ORC, to Chicago-based private equity firm Lake Capital Management. About 400 full-time Infogroup employees, or approximately 15% of the company's full-time workforce, were moved to Lake Capital Management as part of the transaction. One week prior to the sale of ORC, Infogroup began a round of layoffs that reportedly cut 140 jobs.

[UPDATE, Dec. 14, 2:00PM EST]

Infogroup confirmed Kobran's departure in an emailed statement.

"At Infogroup, we reorganized the business in September into four business units and six lines of business focused on client segments — SMB, Data Licensing, Enterprise Data, List Management and Brokerage services, Yesmail and OneSource," according to the statement. "In light of the reorganization around customer segments, our focus is on responding rapidly to the requirements of these customers. As a result, we now have senior marketing executives in each business unit and do not, therefore, need a CMO for the company."