An executive who has been with CBS since 1996 is leaving the company. The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed reports that Gil Schwartz, who has been the company’s chief communications officer since 2006, announced this morning that he is retiring.

Schwartz broke the news in a memo to the company’s staff, saying he plans to step down Nov. 1.

Schwartz is quoted saying in the memo: “I had the option of stepping away early this past summer, but given the exigencies of corporate life at that juncture, I elected to stay in place for a while. Now seems like a much more appropriate time to move on. The corporation is establishing a new direction, full of hope and promise. And I still have a lot of writing to do, in an atmosphere of perhaps some greater serenity.”

The report notes that Schwartz worked closely with ousted CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves, with Schwartz joining the company one year after Moonves became president of CBS Entertainment.

“Outside CBS, Schwartz also had a long-running column in Fortune magazine (and Esquire before that) and has written a number of novels under the pen name Stanley Bing — hence the reference to having ‘a lot of writing to do’ in his memo,” THR notes.

Click on the link above to THR to read the full text of today’s memo from Schwartz.

Gil Schwartz (CBS)