SALT LAKE CITY — Deseret Management Corp. announced a flurry of senior management and organizational structure changes Monday.
The changes come because KSL President and Chief Executive Bob Johnson will leave his post May 1 to become the head of Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators.
"All of us involved with the KSL Broadcast Group are pleased for the opportunity Bob Johnson has to lead Deseret Mutual," Deseret Management Corp. President and CEO Mark Willes said in a news release. "He has served for two decades in the management of KSL and related broadcast properties and has produced exceptional financial and nonfinancial results."
Willes will now also serve as CEO of the KSL Broadcast Group, which includes KSL-TV, a number of radio stations and the strategic marketing group Bonneville Communications.
"This is a time of dynamic change in the way information and entertainment are communicated," Willes said. "The digital revolution has spawned new technologies and communication habits that require constant evolution in the business processes of media companies."
Jeff Simpson, who currently serves as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Deseret Book Co., will leave that assignment to become the executive vice president and COO of KSL.
"I am both humbled by this opportunity and excited by its prospects," Simpson said in a news release. "Working with amazing authors, artists and associates within the Deseret Book family has given me a chance to be immersed in stories and products that are particularly meaningful. Similarly, KSL is passionate about its stories and audience."
Simpson, a former Walt Disney Pictures and television executive and founder of the LDS cinema production company Excel Entertainment Group, will report to Willes in this new assignment.
KSL vice presidents Con Psarras and Michelle Kettle Torsak, who are responsible for news and other content on KSL-TV and KSL NewsRadio, also will report to Willes.
Deseret Management Corp., organized in 1966, manages commercial companies affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The company owns and oversees life insurance, media (including the Deseret News) and hospitality businesses.