Western & Southern Financial Group (Western & Southern) announced that longtime broadcast executive Robert L. "Bobby" Lawrence has joined its board of directors.
"Bobby brings a wealth of experience to our board of directors," said John F. Barrett, Western & Southern's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We will benefit from his unique insights, proven leadership and depth of experience."
We will benefit from his unique insights, proven leadership and depth of experience.
Lawrence's experience includes serving as chief executive officer of Local TV LLC, a company he helped start with private equity partner Oak Hill Capital in 2006. The total capitalization of Local TV, a group of 20 owner/operator television stations in 16 markets across the United States, was over $1.2 billion and annual revenue exceeded $500 million. The stations were affiliated with Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, CW and My Network, and the company employed 2,100 people across its markets. Local TV was sold to Tribune Company in 2013 for $2.7 billion.
Lawrence began his career in broadcasting at Taft Broadcasting after graduating from Lake Forest College in 1975. In the early 1980s, he left Taft to form Seven Hills Broadcasting in Cincinnati. In 1984, Seven Hills restructured into Republic Broadcasting, which was purchased by Jacor Communications two years later. Lawrence served as president and chief operating officer of Jacor Communications and helped it grow to become the country's second-largest radio company with 255 stations in 55 markets.
About Western & Southern Financial Group
Founded in Cincinnati in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern), a Fortune 500 company, is now the parent company of a group of diversified financial services businesses. Its assets owned ($47.2 billion) and managed ($22.3 billion) total $69.5 billion as of Sept 30, 2017. Western & Southern is one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Its six life insurance subsidiaries (The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life Insurance Company, Integrity Life Insurance Company, The Lafayette Life Insurance Company and National Integrity Life Insurance Company) maintain very strong financial ratings and a Comdex Ranking of 96. Other member companies include Eagle Realty Group, LLC; Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.¹ IFS Financial Services, Inc.; Peppertree Partners LLC¹; Touchstone Advisors, Inc.¹; Touchstone Securities, Inc.²; W&S Brokerage Services, Inc.²; and W&S Financial Group Distributors, Inc. For more information on the Western & Southern family of companies, visit www.westernsouthern.com. Western & Southern is the title sponsor of the Western & Southern Open (www.wsopen.com), a premier event in the U.S. Open Series played each August by the world's top-ranked professional male and female tennis players.
1 A registered investment advisor.
2 A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.
For current ratings, please visit www.westernsouthern.com/about/financial-information/financial-ratings.
