Vice Media named two co-chief executives on Monday, turning to internal leaders to steer the company as it gets closer to a sale.
Bruce Dixon, the company’s chief financial officer, is being promoted to co-chief executive alongside Hozefa Lokhandwala, Vice’s chief strategy officer, the company said in a news release.
Mr. Dixon and Mr. Lokhandwala replace Nancy Dubuc, the former chief executive of Vice, who resigned on Friday after nearly five years in the role. When Ms. Dubuc succeeded Shane Smith, the company’s swashbuckling co-founder, in 2018, she was charged with addressing cultural problems at the company and improving its finances in advance of a sale.
“This is a pivotal time for our industry and for Vice,” Mr. Dixon and Mr. Lokhandwala said in a memo to employees. “Trust in traditional media has eroded, there are more ways than ever for our audiences to consume our content and revenue models are evolving faster than ever.”
After years of on-again, off-again sale talks, Vice Media’s investors are seeking a buyer for the company.
It’s unclear who would run the company in the event of a sale. One person with knowledge of the sales process said the company would most likely find a buyer for some or all of its assets — which include the Vice studio and the Virtue ad agency — sometime within the next 60 days.
Before joining Vice, Mr. Dixon held executive positions at the BBC and Central European Media Enterprises, a TV broadcaster that operates in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and other regions. He became the chief financial officer of Vice Media Group in 2021.
Mr. Lokhandwala worked as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan before joining Vice in 2018. In their note to employees, Mr. Lokhandwala and Mr. Dixon called attention to Mr. Lokhandwala’s pop-culture bona fides, saying he has been a D.J. in New York City since he was 17.
