David Binet is resigning from the board of Thomson Reuters Corp. TRI-T in September after a decade as a director in which he helped oversee major changes at the data, software and news provider.
Mr. Binet, 66, has announced he plans to step down at the company’s next regularly scheduled board meeting, according to a company news release. No replacement has been named, and after he departs the board will have 13 members.
A lawyer by training, Mr. Binet joined the Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the Thomson family holding company and controlling shareholder of Thomson Reuters, in 1999. He became chief executive of Woodbridge in 2013, joining the Thomson Reuters board the same year. Woodbridge also owns The Globe and Mail.
“We have seen enormous change and growth in our business and are appreciative of all that David has done to help with those achievements,” said David Thomson, the chairman of Thomson Reuters, in a statement. “He has been a valuable contributor to the Board, and we will miss him in that capacity.”
When Mr. Binet joined the board, the company had been building out its core business lines serving financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting and corporate clients, often through acquisitions. It was also in a turnaround phase, streamlining its multifaceted business after acquiring Reuters Group PLC for about US$17-billion in 2007, on the cusp of a global financial crisis.
In 2018, Thomson Reuters spun out its financial and risk division as a stand-alone company, selling a 55-per-cent stake to a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc. The separate company, Refinitiv, was then sold to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in a deal valued at US$27-billion, including debt.
Since then, Thomson Reuters has emerged as a more streamlined company and has begun investing heavily in artificial-intelligence tools to augment its software. It has also proven resilient in the face of disruptions from the pandemic and rapid interest-rate increases.
“I am excited about its future,” Mr. Binet said in a news release.
Investors have rewarded the company for its steady revenue growth, with shares in Thomson Reuters up nearly 19 per cent over the past year on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
James Bradshaw