Stepping Down, or Stepping Up? DRR's Nisselson Makes A Change

Last week, I read on the Digital Railroad Member's blog that Charles Mauzy, currently the President, now get's promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Nisselson? He gets promoted to Chairman of the Board. Atleast that's how I saw it. All I thought was "Good for Evan, and Good for Charles. Next..."

How's it getting reported elsewhere?
EPUK reports "Digital Railroad (DRR) founder Evan Nisselson has stepped down as the company’s CEO. The post will be taken over by current DRR president Charles Mauzy, with Nisselson continuing as company chairman."

Stepping Down?

(Continued after the Jump)

That piece was then picked up by PDNPulse, here.

I see Even all over the place. That picture on the right is one I made with my iPhone while at a White House News Photographer's Association conference, where Evan was on a panel about the future of still/video. He's out championing DRR, and what they're trying to do for photographers. The role of the CEO is to manage the day-to-day operations, the role of the Chairman is to be much more strategic about the company. With Evan on the road, it actually makes much more sense that he step up into a role that's better suited to him, and leave the day-to-day operations to Charles. My guess is that, as founder of DRR, it's taken some time for Evan to get comfortable with anyone other than himself sheparding his "baby" along from day to day, just like a first-time parent who is unsure about leaving their child with someone else. It takes time and trust to build before you're comfortable with that. It seems Evan is now comfortable enough with Charles to do just that.

So, I called Evan, to get his take on all this. Evan said "I got several calls, among them from Reza (a NGS photographer, ) and others, all of them are supportive of the evolution, and look forward to this helping the Digital Railroad community." That seems pretty much in line with what I thought.

So, to be doubly sure I was thinking things through, I next talked to Charles. Charles said "Evan will continue to, and in fact, expand his role as spokesperson for Digital Railroad and will continue to provide inspiration and vision as the Chairman of the Board, something he's done from the company's inception."

Yup, that pretty much is what I thought, and why I didn't write about this in the first place. It's essentially a non-news event, suitable, as they did, for a mention on their blog.

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