MinOnline :: Min Magazine :: 21 Most Intriguing: David Nussbaum

21 Most Intriguing: David Nussbaum
Jeremy Greenfield & Courtney Barnes

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CEO, Sundance Business Enterprises

hen David Nussbaum took the reins at Penton in 2004, things didn’t look so good for the floundering B2B giant. Penton had been delisted on the NYSE when its share price dipped below the $1 mark. The company’s debt/revenue ratio was quite lopsided, and employee morale was low. In addition, it was not a very good time for magazines. Nussbaum swooped in and immediately made changes, gutting the executive team and cutting fat. Two years later, Penton, despite its sub-dollar stock price, was a healthy B2B media company. The company, which almost went bankrupt during its struggles, was then sold to Wasserstein & Co. for a whopping $530 million—far above pundits’ expectations, netting ABRY Partners $150 million, triple its initial investment. Oh yeah, and Nussbaum did OK on the deal, too.

Now Nussbaum is back in the game after only a month’s rest. He’s teamed up again with ABRY to find B2B media acquisitions…and then build. If he’s half as good at seeking investments and building as he is at recovery, he could make this "intriguing" list again in the very near future.

Nickname: The Sundance Kid
Birthday: Classified Information

Message Board

Eric Shanfelt, EVP of eMedia, Aspire Media
There have only been a few people who I feel have radically shaped the course of my life, and David is one of them. It's easy to see the financial results of what he did at Penton, but what most people don't see is how he completely transformed the culture to one of innovation, optimism, and entrepreneurialism.
He holds himself and others to high standards and operates a very flat organization, but he truly cares for those with whom he works. To me, one of the most remarkable things he did when he took over as CEO of Penton was not to take the amazing corner office on the 20th floor, but instead to take an office on the 9th floor right alongside the people working on the brands.

David has always been a proactive communicator and will talk with anyone, anytime, anywhere. At Penton, if someone called or emailed him he would always respond ... often within minutes. It didn't matter if you were a vice president or an intern. Of course, this only fueled his Blackberry addiction. I have often sent him an email at 11:00 pm or midnight and would get a response back immediately. And don't ask about the time he ruined his BB on vacation in Italy!

Don Pazour, CEO, Access Intelligence
David is one of the most talented executives out there today. I have known him well for over 15 years—he worked for me at Miller Freeman. He is on the shy side. People see him as a GQ—looking CEO, who speaks in call-outs, and at times his staff sees him as a bit aloof, but anyone who has worked closely with him knows that he cares deeply about his staff—he values their creativity and talent and cares about them as more than colleagues and employees.

What cracks me up about him is how obsessive he is about getting back to people. At the peak of the Penton/Prism discussions and negotiations (which David of course would never talk about), I would send him an email on some totally unrelated subject just to see if I could cut his response time from near instantaneous to a few hours. In the thick of acquisition activity, David was never unresponsive.

What have you done this year?

Sold Penton Media for a fair price; launched partnership with ABRY Partners LLC; vacationed with family and friends to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels within a 10-day span; celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary in St. Barts; coached two teams to the semi-finals in youth basketball; celebrated my eldest child’s acceptance to the college of her choice; rose to position of president of local youth basketball league; and, although I worked out regularly with my boys, still couldn't bench press as much as my 16-year old or hit a golf ball as far as my 14-year-old.

General Interests:

I like to coach youth basketball, hang out in Soho with my wife, suffer Knick games silently, read biography’s (all-time favorite: The Last Lion: Winston Churchill Alone, 1932-1940), and seek out the next great B2B media/information/data platform business.