Rightmove points to a smartphone future as it hires Shazam’s former CEO

Andrew Fisher, one of the UK's best-known and successful digital pioneers, is to be its new non-executive chairman.

Rightmove has finally revealed its replacement for outgoing chairman Scott Forbes, who is to depart at the end of December after 14 years with the company

48-year-old Andrew Fisher will be the portal’s new non-executive chairman and comes from music discovery smartphone app Shazam, which enables users to identify songs they hear on the radio or in stores and is used by 100 million people worldwide.

Fisher spent nearly 14 years at the company including as its CEO and later chairman.

His mobile development experience would point to Rightmove’s future growth; at least 70% of traffic to portals like Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket comes from smartphone users these days.

Fisher is also a non-exec board member at Marks & Spencer, Moneysupermarket.com and Merlin Entertainments, which owns Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers.

Gong given

In the past he has been a special adviser on the BBC to a government minister and received an OBE in 2016 for his contribution to the digital economy.

Rightmove’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Brooks-Johnson said: “I’d like to thank Scott for his invaluable contribution to Rightmove’s success over the past years and particularly the support he’s shown me over the past three years as CEO.

I’m delighted to welcome Andrew to Rightmove and look forward to working with him as we continue to innovate to make home moving easier.”

Scott Forbes said, “It’s been a privilege and pleasure to have been part of Rightmove’s journey from pre-IPO in 2005 to the FTSE 100 business it is today.”


One Comment

  1. What does the imminent installation of Andrew Fisher means for the future of Rightmove, as its non-executive chairman?

    He is an extremely capable, intelligent, team player, who is also modest and to quote him,

    ‘My specialty has been helping develop and drive the adoption of new technologies to hundreds of millions of people, and my ambition is to help others to continue to do this and encourage them to believe that they can have a positive impact on a global scale.’

    Now although Andrew’s background academically was not tech, the phenomenal success he had with Shazam, the app that apple can not get enough of, begs the question – is he going to steer Rightmove down the path of ‘vendors’ using apps to self list; or develop better tech for property agents?

    Time will tell, but with a very healthy bank balance it will be interesting to see what creature Rightmove turns into by the year 2025.

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