Rajiv Pant is a well-respected product, design, and engineering executive and entrepreneur. As Chief Product & Technology Officer, he leads product, design, engineering, and technology operations for Hearst Magazines, Hearst Autos, and CDS Global, Inc.
Previously, he was Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company. He served as Chief Product & Technology Officer of The Wall Street Journal, responsible for Product, Design, and Engineering where he reported jointly to the WSJ editor-in-chief and to Dow Jones corporate. He was then promoted to Deputy CTO of News Corp, parent company of WSJ and several other global brands.
Earlier, as Chief Technology Officer of The New York Times, Rajiv led the successful development and delivery of dozens of acclaimed mobile and web products over four years. He reported jointly to the business and to the editor-in-chief of The New York Times. Rajiv was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014.
Prior to his move to The NY Times, Rajiv was Vice President of Digital Technology at Conde Nast for four years. He headed up technology for Conde Nast’s brands including Reddit.
Before Conde Nast, Rajiv was Chief Technology Officer at COXnet (now Cox Media Group), a division of Cox, one of the nation’s leading media and communications companies. It was during this tenure, that Rajiv received the Newspaper Association of America’s 20 Under 40 Award.
This followed a stint of nearly a decade at Knight Ridder, then the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher. As Vice President of Technology at Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose, Rajiv led the development and implementation of the company’s innovative Web site products. He also worked closely with newsroom colleagues at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
Rajiv twice received the prestigious Knight Ridder Excellence Award for Technology Innovation. Among the products developed by Rajiv and his team is Cofax, a leading open-source content management system used by newspapers and other companies around the world. Xmultra, a systems integration product developed by his team for feeds transfer and transformation with multiple newspaper systems, won the Newspaper Association of America’s New Media Award.
Rajiv’s leadership qualities were also recognized when two development teams under his direction received two separate Newspaper Association of America 2004 Best Practice Awards in New Media; the first for the development of web and multi-platform publishing tools, and a second for a software upgrade system for high traffic web sites.
Rajiv has experience building and supervising small teams to 500+ employees. He is admired for his win/win collaborative style by his peers. He strives to live every day by his life’s motto: “Victory is winning people over, not defeating others.”
He has been advising the AI startup you.com and tech solutions company Podvisory since their founding.
He volunteers with the charity New York Cares, where he served in-person during the pandemic when help was needed most. Rajiv is an avid fitness enthusiast who was featured in a Men’s Health article about his commitment to working out for at least daily for 1,000+ consecutive days.
Most importantly, Rajiv is a devoted dad to his son Fitz Raj. They enjoy doing math, Python programming, and playing together. A passionate lifelong learner, Rajiv has participated in executive education programs at MIT, Stanford University, Harvard University’s Kennedy School, and Yale University. For more information, visit Rajiv’s personal Web site at rajiv.com.
(Updated: May 2023)
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