Time Warner Cable Chief Financial Officer John Martin is close to being promoted to CFO of parent Time Warner after Wayne Pace retires later this year, The Post has learned.
According to several sources inside Time Warner, CEO Dick Parsons and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Bewkes have spoken to internal and external candidates about the CFO position and Martin, 40, has the inside track.
Considered a rising star within Time Warner, Martin’s resume contains several bullet points that have made him particularly attractive to Bewkes, a former CFO himself who is expected to take over leadership of the company once Parsons steps down.
In particular, sources noted that Martin played a key role in structuring the spin-off of a piece of Time Warner Cable earlier this year.
That skill could come in handy if Bewkes decides, for instance, to take Wall Street’s advice and spin off publishing unit Time Inc. or AOL.
Even if Bewkes doesn’t take such a drastic a step, sources said he is still expected to “do some massaging” with Time Warner’s assets and Martin could serve as an important liaison between the media giant and Wall Street.
To be sure, bankers and analysts familiar with Martin said he earned the respect of Wall Street during his 12-year tenure in investor relations at Time Warner as well as during a two-year stint as director of equity research at ABN Amro.
“John is a strong and trusted executive within Time Warner who is focused on ways to maximize value,” said Aryeh Bourkoff, a vice chairman of UBS’ technology, media and telecommunications banking team, who has known Martin for about five years.
The contract of Time Warner’s current CFO, Pace, expires at the end of the year and sources said he will retire at that time if not sooner.
Pace, 61, wanted to retire when his last contract expired in 2005 but agreed to extend it for an additional two years at Parsons’ request, according to sources.
Pace came to Time Warner in 2001 from its Turner Broadcasting unit at a particularly difficult time for the company financially.
Since then, he has cleaned up the company’s balance sheet after its merger with AOL and helped that division settle an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over claims the unit inflated advertising revenue.
Pace also landed on the cover of The Post last year when his name was linked to a woman who was arrested for running a prostitution ring – he has continually denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Time Warner declined to comment for this story.