Barbara Bennett, president and chief operating officer of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. for close to three years, has left the company.
A Vulcan spokesperson confirmed Bennett’s departure, which was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Bennett stepped into the new position of president and COO in 2014, and she was responsible for running the daily operations of Vulcan’s business and corporate functions.
Before coming to Vulcan, Bennett served as vice president and CFO at Digital First Media, and before that spent three years in a presidentially-appointed role as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chief financial officer. Before the EPA, she spent 17 years in executive roles at Discovery Communications — parent company of Discovery Channel.
It was this variety of experience that made her an attractive candidate to help lead Vulcan. At the time of her hiring Allen said “the unique combination of her environmental protection, media industry and operations background make her the ideal choice to help Vulcan achieve its vision.”
