Do You Like the New Pandora CEO? Wall Street Does!

Brian McAndrews will become Pandora’s new CEO. McAndrews is formerly of Madrona Venture Group, Microsoft and aQuantive. He is also taking over “effective immediately.” He sure got a ringing endorsement:

No one better understands the intersection of technology and advertising, which he clearly demonstrated during aQuantive’s meteoric rise. He has a recognized ability to set strategy, lead large teams and drive growth and innovation at great scale. He is also a natural cultural fit with Pandora. This is a great development for our company.

Here are some of McAndrews’ pedigree qualifications:

• He held senior positions at General Mills and ABC.
• He took over Avenue A in 1999 and built it into aQuantive, ultimately to see it acquired by Microsoft for $6 billion in 2007.
• He joined Madrona as an investing partner in 2009 after serving as a senior vice president at Microsoft and running Microsoft’s Advertiser & Publisher Solutions group.
• McAndrews currently serves on the boards of The New York Times Co., Grubhub Seamless and AppNexus.
• He was recognized as Advertising Age’s first-ever “Digital Executive of the Year” and he was designated one of the 30 most influential executives in the advertising, marketing and media world in Adweek’s 30th Anniversary issue.

As a reminder, Joe Kennedy announced earlier this year that he would retire as Chief Executive Officer. After a 5% gain on Wednesday to $21.38, Pandora shares rose another 7% to $22.95 after the announcement.

So, tell us what you think in a poll:

[polldaddy poll=7389374]