Former Living Social co-founder, CEO to join Graham Holdings

Published October 2, 2014 by Veronica Garabelli

The ex-CEO and co-founder of Living Social will become president of Graham Holdings. Timothy O’Shaughnessy will start working at the Arlington-based company on Nov. 3.

O’Shaughnessy was CEO of Living Social for seven years until stepping down in August. He co-founded the e-commerce and marketing company, which grew to sales of nearly $2 billion, with three other people in 2007.

In his new role, O’Shaughnessy will oversee Graham Holdings’ investments and acquisitions. He also will help set a new direction for the firm, which for many years was best known for running The Washington Post (the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos last year for $250 million).

“Tim will be central to the future of our company,” Donald E. Graham, chairman and CEO of Graham Holdings, said in a statement. “We are lucky to have him join us.”

Graham is O’Shaughnessy’s father-in-law. His daughter, Laura, heads SocialCode, a company owned by Graham Holdings.

O’Shaughnessy, 32, graduated from Georgetown University in 2004 and joined AOL as a product manager. In 2006, he moved to Revolution Health, where he eventually became vice president of product development. During that time, he and three others developed a series of apps for Facebook, which grew into LivingSocial.

Graham Holdings is a education and media company whose principal operations include educational services, television broadcasting, cable systems and online, print and local TV news.