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Tech Topics In This Article: The Weather Company, Atlanta leadership
Rohit Agarwal is ready to lead a business giant and “OG AI company” right in his own backyard.
Agarwal was recently named the new CEO at The Weather Company, the weather forecasting giant headquartered in Atlanta. He is taking over the seat from Sheri Bachstein, who has served as The Weather Company’s CEO since 2021. Agarwal said he was drawn to The Weather Company because of its strong brand recognition. He also sees weather and climate as essential, evolving sectors where consumers and businesses demand deeper, more actionable insights.
Agarwal built up most of his career in the product world, drawn to product as a way of “problem solving” for businesses. Agarwal served as CNN’s Chief Product Officer from 2016 to 2021. He most recently was the Chief Product and Revenue Officer at SoundCloud, the Berlin-based music streaming platform.
Agarwal’s Vision For The Weather Company
Given The Weather Company’s focus on prediction and forecasting, Agarwal said The Weather Company is an “OG AI company.”
The Weather Company builds in-house AI tools while also working with third-party AI services and LLMs that “[complement] with our knowledge and our data set in interesting and compelling ways,” Agarwal told Hypepotamus. “I think it’s the mash up of all of those things that becomes really interesting.”
That includes finding more compelling and personalized ways to deliver weather forecasts to customers.
Under Agarwal’s leadership, The Weather Company will be focused on growing both the consumer and the enterprise business lines. On the consumer side, that includes finding ways to be “more mindful about how we super serve” weather and climate content to people.
On the enterprise side, The Weather Company supports several large industries that are “dependent on weather,” including aviation, media, government, retail, and finance.
While new to the CEO seat, Agarwal told Hypepotamus that he is guided by the formula “content plus curation plus capability plus consistency equals the opportunity for tremendous success.”
“We have the world’s leading forecasting content. That is an incredible asset derived [from] world-class science and meteorology department made up of over 100 people who are best-in-class at what they do,” he added. “I think that when you combine that with our ability to package that content…I think that gives us a tremendous opportunity, both on platform and off platform, to tell the story about weather and its impacts to our customers in new and compelling ways.”
The Weather Company Over The Years
The Weather Company has been a staple in the Atlanta technology and business communities since its founding in 1980. The company was acquired by IBM in 2016 and was later acquired by Francisco Partners in 2023.
The Atlanta headquarters boasts about 200 employees, and the company also has US-based offices in New York and Massachusetts.
Other Leadership Changes
Agarwal isn’t the only person joining The Weather Company’s leadership team in 2024.
Previous CEO Sheri Bachstein will transition to the role of President. In that role, she will oversee the company’s advertising, aviation, media, government, and defense side of the enterprise business.
Michael Love is joining as Chief Financial Officer. Love previously served as Intuit Mailchimp’s CFO and was Head of Finance and Strategy for Home Depot’s B2B business unit.
