Energy data firm Wood Mackenzie has announced the appointment of a new CEO as his predecessor moves on to “pursue other opportunities”.
Jason Liu takes over the chief executive officer role from Mark Brinin, who had been appointed to the role last year following Veritas Capital’s acquisition of WoodMac for $3.1 billion (£2.5bn).
Liu’s most recent job was CEO of Zywave, a private-equity backed “software as a service” (SAAS) firm focused on the insurance industry and based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As well as a biography which mentions his experience having run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, Liu is credited with offering “strategic vision and operational execution” which doubled the size of the firm under his tenure.
Veritas CEO Ramzi Musallam said Liu’s experience and skill set makes him “the ideal leader for Wood Mackenzie through this next transformative period of growth”.
He added: “We are completely aligned in our vision for Wood Mackenzie and look forward to working with him as he builds on the company’s position as the global market leader for data and analytics that enable the energy transition.”
Brinin had been chief financial officer of WoodMac for a number of years before taking the role of co-president and then CEO in February 2023 and was hailed for “successfully leading the company through its transformative carve-out”.
WoodMac was launched as a stockbroker in Edinburgh in 1923 and began researching energy markets during the North Sea oil boom in the 1970s.
New York-based Veritas acquired the business in 2022 from Nasdaq-listed data firm Verisk, which had in turn bought it for £1.85bn in 2015.
