The Match Group Reveals Full Details Of Management Shake-Up Post-IPO

Following their successful IPO last year, The Match Group has released further details of its management shake-up, as the company starts the new year.

As we already knew, former Match Group CEO and co-founder of OkCupid, Sam Yagan, has lost his position as CEO, with Greg Blatt assuming the role.

Yagan will join the Match Group Board and serve as Vice Chairman, a non-executive position that “encompass his service on the Match Group Board, his continuing service on the Tinder Board, and an ongoing advisory relationship with the company.”

It’s the end of a long period of executive leadership at The Match Group for Yagan, who has been CEO for four years, and achieved what very few have – selling the company he founded for $50m to IAC, and helming The Match Group to a successful IPO.

Whether the decision was mutual is unclear – perhaps with Yagan looking to focus on other ventures such as his VC fund Corazon Capital – or simply IAC Chairman Barry Diller deciding that Blatt was the best man to lead the company as it embarks on single life.

In addition to this big change at the top, The Match Group’s North America CEO is now Mandy Ginsberg, the former CEO of The Princeton Review and previous CEO of Match.com U.S.

Ginsberg takes the huge role of managing Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish and the Match Affinity brands, and their collective expansion in North America.

One role that isn’t seeing any change is that of Tinder CEO, with Sean Rad retaining the position after eBay exec Chris Payne lost the role after just six months.

Speaking about the shake-up, the new CEO of The Match Group and longtime Barry Diller favourite Greg Blatt, said:

“Each of our major dating businesses will continue to be managed independently, but this leadership structure provides greater access for each business to the benefits of being part of our broad portfolio. Mandy, Shar, Alex and Navin are all seasoned dating executives familiar with what has driven success across our brands, and this structure allows them to more efficiently share that knowledge, along with access to our resources, with their covered businesses. 

“Additionally, this structure allows me to devote more time to helping Sean and his team manage Tinder’s rapid growth and to focus on the Match Group initiatives likely to drive the most shareholder value at any given time.”

Another big change is that the former CEO of Meetic, Alexandre Lubot, will become the CEO of Match Group Europe, in charge of the company’s European brands like Meetic and Twoo.

Speaking about Lubot’s new role, Blatt said: “Alex has done a great job at Meetic over the past few years and I’m confident that his deeper involvement with Twoo will help drive that business’ strategy as well.  He’ll also expand his focus to explore other opportunities for Match Group growth across the European market.”

Another change is that the COO of Match Group, Navin Ramachandran, will become CEO of Match Group Asia/Latin America, responsible for Pairs, Couples, ParPerfeito and Match Asia, while also keeping his position as COO.

In addition to this, Hesam Hosseini, previously the General Manager of Emerging Brands, will become General Manager of PlentyOfFish.

Speaking about Sam Yagan’s time at the company, Blatt said: “I also want to thank Sam for his service as CEO of Match Group.  We are delighted to have him join the Match Group Board and remain on the Tinder Board.

“He co-founded OkCupid and has successfully managed a lot of change at our company since becoming CEO in 2012. I highly value his advice and counsel across our businesses and look forward to him helping us in this new role.”

When The Match Group debuted on the stock market in November, it closed the day 23% higher than its original share price of $12, hitting $14.74.

Since then, the price of shares has dropped to $13.51.