Tegna Names Rao Chief Technology Officer

Tegna today appointed Kurt Rao chief technology officer, effective April 16. He will work across Tegna to drive the development and implementation of the company’s next-generation client and customer technology solutions.

Rao will report directly to president and CEO Dave Lougee and oversee several departments, including information technology.

Rao brings more than 20 years of media experience to Tegna. Most recently, he was chief information and technology officer for Time Inc., where he led the transformation and growth of the media publishing organization into a digital content platform company. In addition, he optimized technology operations across the organization and built platforms to support content across video and digital while enhancing consumer data analytics.

“We recognize that the needs of our consumers and clients are constantly changing. Kurt has been extremely successful in developing new and enhanced technologies across platforms to drive business value. As a champion of innovation and growth, Kurt will work across our company to develop an industry-leading technology infrastructure to meet our current and future needs,” said Lougee.

Prior to joining Time Inc., Rao was an executive at Time Warner, where he most recently served as corporate chief information officer. During his tenure, he helped build and implement a shared, internal services technology organization.

He has also worked as vice president of technology for NBCUniversal and director of application development at Viacom Inc.

Rao received his B.S. in computer science from Monmouth University. He sits on the advisory boards of several software companies.