Zodiak Active CEO to Step Down, Nicola Drago Named Successor

LONDON: Marco Ferrari, the chairman and CEO of Zodiak Active, is exiting the company at the end of the year, to be succeeded by Nicola Drago, currently the senior VP of strategy and business development at the company.

Drago will become CEO starting in January 2014. He began at Zodiak in 2008, as an M&A manager and business controller. In 2010 he was promoted to CEO of Zodiak America Latina. From 2012 Drago was named senior VP of strategy and new business at Zodiak Active.

Ferrari founded the company, which was known as Neo Network, 14 years ago. Neo Network was acquired by De Agostini in 2007 and evolved in the global digital and branded arm of Zodiak. Ferrari was appointed chief digital officer of Zodiak Entertainment in 2010, and following the 2011 merger of RDF Contact and NEO Network into Zodiak Active, he took his current role as chairman and CEO.

Ferrari said, “I have a huge sense of gratitude for all the trust that I have received from the Group over the years and I would like to thank Giorgio Gori, David Frank and our shareholders De Agostini for the opportunity to have been so actively involved in a stimulating project like Zodiak. I also want to say thank you to all the amazing people and the friends who have worked with me from day one, and shared the incredibly exciting experience of these years.

In the last couple of years Zodiak Active have embarked on an exciting new strategy, focused into native, scalable, digital businesses such as programmatic advertising and online video—complementing our traditional branded content and production activities—and we are thrilled with the results, with more than €10m revenues generated this year from businesses which did not even exist in Zodiak 18 months ago.

Having worked together on this strategy, I’m sure that Nicola will be the perfect leader to drive our amazing, loyal and rock-solid management team toward the next phase and to an even brighter future, while now the time is right for me to look forward to new entrepreneurial challenges, and get back to the start-up world.”

Drago remarked, “I’m honoured to be taking over from Marco Ferrari and to lead Zodiak Active through the next set of challenges. Working closely with Marco and the executive team for over a year was an inspiring journey in which we shared vision, passion, decisions and enthusiasm. I am extremely grateful to Marco for supporting my appointment and for everything he has achieved in these 14 years. I look forward to building upon that to consolidate our  leadership in digital, production and branded content business, and to push even further on the growth of our, scalable, and high tech businesses such as online vdeo and programmatic advertising.”

David Frank, Zodiak Media's CEO, commented on the succession, “On behalf of everyone at Zodiak I would like to thank Marco for his incredible commitment and service to this group since Neo Network became part of Zodiak. He is one of the most intelligent and talented senior executives within the group and his contribution to strategy, planning and debate will be missed. On a personal note I have enjoyed immensely working with Marco and I want to thank him for his support and advice. I am sure he will be successful in his return to a more entrepreneurial life and I wish him all the best. I am delighted too to confirm the appointment of Nicola as Marco’s successor. The energy, enthusiasm and dedication he has shown in preparing himself for this role has been exemplary and I have every confidence that Nicola can continue to build Zodiak Active as a world-class brand. Since I arrived at Zodiak I have watched Nicola develop into a leader and outstanding executive. He deserves this opportunity and Zodiak Active is lucky to have him as its CEO.”