NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--
Today, a leading global wedding technology platform The Knot Worldwide (TKWW), announced the appointment of Michael Pickrum as Chief Financial Officer. With more than 25 years of experience in strategic finance, operations, and business development within the media and technology industries, Pickrum will oversee TKWW’s global finance organization. Pickrum joins TKWW at an exciting moment as the company celebrates its 30-year anniversary and continues to grow and scale with a focus on product innovation.
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Pickrum joins TKWW from Maximum Effort, the media, marketing, and investment company co-founded by Ryan Reynolds, where he served as Chief Financial Officer. Before this, he held the roles of COO and CFO at ExecOnline, Inc., a B2B online leadership development company. Pickrum spent over 17 years at BET/Viacom, where he served as EVP and CFO starting in 2007. Prior to that, he was COO of BET Interactive. He earned his master's and bachelor's degrees in engineering from Stanford University and his MBA from The Wharton School.
“I am thrilled to be joining TKWW at such an important time in the company’s journey,” said Michael Pickrum, CFO, TKWW. “There is incredible power in celebrations and I am looking forward to working with the exceptional team at TKWW to further enable our millions of couples and 900,000 small business owners around the world to celebrate life’s most meaningful moments.”
“Michael is a world-class financial and operations leader with an impressive track record of driving strategic growth and operational excellence across media and technology companies,” said Raina Moskowitz, CEO, TKWW. “As we continue to grow and scale with a focus on product innovation, Michael’s deep expertise in strategic planning, analysis, and capital allocation will be critical to our ongoing success. We are thrilled to have him join our team and help guide TKWW through our next phase of growth.”
Pickrum is based in New York, NY and reports to TKWW Chief Executive Officer Raina Moskowitz.
About The Knot Worldwide
Across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, The Knot Worldwide champions the power of celebration. The company’s global family of brands provides best-in-class products, services, and content to take celebration planning from inspiration to action. Through its wedding brands, including The Knot, WeddingWire, Bodas.net, Hitched.co.uk, Mariages.net, Matrimonio.com, and others, the company offers an extensive database of hundreds of thousands of wedding professionals to assist couples in organizing the happiest day of their lives. We have a brand for every kind of celebration—from booking a birthday party, to planning a wedding, to preparing to become a parent, and every moment in between.
Michael Pickrum, courtesy of The Knot Worldwide
CALI, Colombia (AP) — A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people, damaging hundreds of buildings and leaving many trapped under debris while their loved ones and rescue workers searched through rubble.
Search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings in the country’s third-largest city, Cali, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers.
“Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed,” said Álvaro López, who cradled his dog as he watched the search. The desperate scene recalled the searches still ongoing in neighboring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by two powerful earthquakes.
Besides Cali, the quake ravaged cities across western Colombia, including Pereira, Quibdo and Manizales, and was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama. The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella said at least 87 people were injured and around 1,600 buildings were damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed. He declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery while saying he would visit the disaster zone.
“We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” he said.
Colombia’s Geological Service said Monday's quake was the country's strongest recorded “in the 21st century,” and that it was followed by 21 less powerful aftershocks.
Colombia’s Pacific region around the quake's epicenter lies along the “Ring of Fire," the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. The Pacific, particularly the Choco region, is one of Colombia's poorest, nestled in dense jungle. Much of Choco is only reachable by boat or plane, which may pose a problem for authorities in assessing the wider toll.
Local authorities said the death toll included at least 40 people who were killed in the Risaralda region, where Pereira is located, and 27 people in the Valle del Cauca region, where Cali is located, including three children. Authorities also confirmed nine people killed in Choco, two in the Caldas region and a 73-year-old in the Antioquia region. It was not immediately clear where the other 32 people died.
The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing more than 6,300 people.
By Monday afternoon, people had begun reporting their loved ones missing on digital databases just as civilians did following Venezuela's earthquakes. One database had more than 1,400 people, mostly in Cali and Pereira, with the number steadily climbing.
Photos of the missing included a young mother and her baby in Pereira; another showed an 80-year-old woman in Cali whose family was desperately looking for details after her building collapsed.
Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city as buildings collapsed. Residents and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors. The local government said that people remained trapped in a number of the city's 380 damaged buildings.
“My entire house shook. I’ve never lived through such a powerful earthquake,” he said. “We’re thanking God we’re alive.”
Little was known about the extent of the damage in Choco, a remote region where officials reported dozens of injured people and damaged buildings but few other details. Phone signals were out in many parts of the region's capital, Quibdo. The town closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, San Jose del Palmar, has no airport, and is located on top of a mountain ridge along a highway linking the cities of Cali and Pereira.
In Pereira, further south in the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia, photos and videos on local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling down on travelers taking shelter and screaming. People were shown running through rubble and plumes of dust and residents said that the city was lined with collapsed stores, residential buildings and homes. Pereira's mayor, Mauricio Salazar, told a local radio station there were at least 15 collapsed buildings where people were feared trapped.
In nearby Manizales, one of the towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral collapsed and fell on the nave. Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas asked residents to stay outside in case of aftershocks. Authorities said flights were suspended in the airports of Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira as they assessed damage.
Small earthquakes, known as “temblores,” are common in central and western Colombia, but those above 6.0 magnitude are rare. In 1999, a 6.2 magnitude quake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.
Response to the earthquake presents the first major challenge to de la Espriella, a Trump ally who was sworn in as president over the weekend. A divisive figure because of his pledge of a all-out crackdown on criminal groups, de la Espriella said Monday he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency.
“You are not alone. The state is present and taking action,” he said.
Offers of aid quickly poured in from across the Americas, including from the United Nations and the Trump administration. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — whose countries were among the largest providers of aid to Venezuela following its recent crisis — said they were ready to assist Colombia.
"From El Salvador, we are in communication and ready to provide immediate support with our rescue teams, medical personnel, paramedics, supplies, or any other assistance that our Colombian brothers and sisters deem necessary,” Bukele said.
Chilean President José Antonio Kast said Chile, one of the region’s most earthquake-prone countries, “knows the pain and the challenge left by earthquakes” and pledged help.
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Suárez reported from Bogotá and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Manuel Rueda in Bogotá, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
A vehicle is crushed by debris after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Diaz)
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Patients are evacuated from a hospital after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Residents stand outside the Cathedral of Manizales after it was damaged by an earthquake in Manizales, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/John Jairo Bonilla)
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Government workers stand outside their office buildings in Panama City, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, after feeling an earthquake with an epicenter in neighboring Colombia. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
People leave their homes after a quake was felt in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
A man leaves an apartment building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
People stand outside their homes after a quake was felt in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People stand outside their homes after a quake was felt in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Government workers stand outside their office buildings in Panama City, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, after feeling an earthquake with an epicenter in neighboring Colombia. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
People stand outside their homes after a quake was felt in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
People stand outside their homes after a quake was felt in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/John Wilson Vizcaino)
