John Wickersham President and chief executive officer VNU Business Media Center Advisory Board

John Wickersham is President & CEO of VNU Business Media comprising Bill Communications, BPI Communications, VNU Expositions, and VNU eMedia. VNU Business Media is a leading $700 million New York City-based business information company, with 80 trade magazines, 50 expositions and related electronic media. He is a native of Kansas City and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Kansas in 1973

Mr. Wickersham began his career in publishing in advertising sales and quickly was promoted into publishing executive positions within Intertec Publishing Corporation (now Primedia/Intertec). There he was involved primarily in the agricultural, lawn and garden, and telecommunications markets. At Intertec, he was also centrally involved with their fast-paced acquisition strategy that resulted in the quadrupling of that company's revenues over a five-year period in the late 1980's.

In 1990, Mr. Wickersham was recruited to Bill Communications by majority shareholder, Boston Ventures, where he led the management team's effort to revitalize, restructure, grow and diversify the over 100-year-old company. That effort, including a number of acquisitions, resulted in a highly successful 1994 sale of Bill Communications to the Dutch media company, VNU, that provided a substantial investment return to Bill's shareholders.

After that transaction, Mr. Wickersham remained as Bill's President/CEO, leading an aggressive expansion campaign that tripled the Company's size. In 1999 he was promoted into the top executive position for VNLTs business-to-business media holdings within the United States. Within VNU, he has been a member of the VNU, Inc. Executive Committee since its formation.

Beyond VNU, Mr. Wickersham has been active with a number of significant media industry organizations. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Business Media (ABM) from 1992 through 2000. In 1999 he served as the ABM's Chairman. As well, Mr. Wickersham currently serves as a member of the Business Publications Auditing International (BPAI) Board of Directors as its Treasurer and participates as a member of that organization's Executive Committee. He also currently serves on the Advisory Board of smallbusiness.com, an information provider to small business owners.

Mr. Wickersham has been named by Folio Magazine as one of the top 40 most influential leaders and innovators. He was also honored by the American Business Media as its recipient of the McAllister Fellowship Award in 1999.

Mr. Wickersham is 50 years old and married with two children. He and his family reside in Westchester County, New York.