NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) today announced that Sandra Sims-Williams will join the company as Senior Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), beginning January, 2020. In this role, Ms. Sims-Williams will lead Nielsen's D&I strategy and teams for both the Media and Connect sides of the business, through Nielsen's transition into two independent, publicly traded companies. As Senior Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, she will join the company's executive leadership team and will report to Nielsen's Chief Executive Officer, David Kenny.

"Diversity & Inclusion are essential to everything we do at Nielsen. Fostering a culture that is diverse and inclusive, and that is reflected in our products and offering, is the guiding force and a significant differentiator for our company," said David Kenny, Chief Executive Officer for Nielsen. "That's why we're excited to have Sandra, a transformational leader with 30 years of experience linking diversity and inclusion strategies with corporate initiatives that drive diversity and inclusion cross-functionally, join our team, as we continue driving forward with our systemic diversity and inclusion initiatives."

Prior to joining Nielsen, Sandra led diversity and inclusion efforts at Publicis Groupe as Chief Diversity Officer and has a deep background in diverse leadership development, retention programming, analytics and effectiveness, supplier diversity, multicultural talent acquisition, and corporate initiatives that drive diversity and inclusion cross-functionally. Earlier this year, she made the Black Enterprise Top Corporate Executives list, The Inaugural Champion, Adweek & ADCOLOR, and SAVOY Magazine's Most Influential Women in Corporate America list. Sandra is also a member of The Advertising Industry's Diversity Steering Committee and serves on the boards of New York Women in Communication, Advertising Club of New York and ColorComm.

"I am proud to be joining the Nielsen team and continuing to leverage diversity and inclusion as key elements for growth and leadership," said Sims-Williams. "I look forward to working with and supporting Nielsen's talented teams as we enter the next chapter of the company's transformation into two independent, publicly-traded companies."

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Nielsen is divided into two business units. Nielsen Global Media, the arbiter of truth for media markets, provides media and advertising industries with unbiased and reliable metrics that create a shared understanding of the industry required for markets to function. Nielsen Global Connect provides consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers with accurate, actionable information and insights and a complete picture of the complex and changing marketplace that companies need to innovate and grow.

Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what's happening now, what's happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge.

An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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SOURCE Nielsen