Time Warner Inc. today announced a top-level management change for its Turner Broadcasting System division. Multichannel News reports that the company named Time Warner Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Martin as the new Turner CEO.

Martin will replace current CEO Phil Kent effective Jan. 1, the report notes, with Kent stepping up to chairman in a transition phase in 2014.

In a statement, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said: “Phil Kent’s exceptional leadership at Turner has driven much of Time Warner’s recent success. For the past decade, he has expertly guided the Turner networks through a period of rapid change, all the while building on each network’s leading position with viewers and advertisers and forging stronger relationships with distributors. At Phil’s initiation, he and I agreed that now is the right time to announce the next generation of leadership, and I am pleased that he will serve as chairman.”

The report notes: "As CFO, Martin currently oversees all of Time Warner’s finance, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, internal audit, investor relations, treasury and tax areas as well as corporate human resources, employee development and growth, compensation and benefits, worldwide recruitment, and security and transportation. Mr. Martin is also responsible for leading efforts to launch enterprise-wide services in the areas of information technology, real estate and facilities and HR systems. In addition, he works closely with other members of Time Warner’s senior management team and its operating divisions on a variety of organizational, development and diversity issues."

Martin became CFO of Time Warner Inc. in 2008, after serving as EVP and CFO of Time Warner Cable Inc. since August 2005.

Bewkes added in his statement: “John is one of the most capable and strategically minded executives I know. As CFO, he led the design and implementation of our financial strategy that has helped Time Warner deliver superior shareholder returns. But he is also a broad and thoughtful business thinker whose inclusive management style and focus on driving the business forward will fit well with the Turner tradition. I have great confidence he will build on the success Phil has achieved to take Turner to even greater heights.”

The company expects to name a successor to martin as CFO in the coming weeks, the piece notes.

John Martin