AOL, which has had some turmoil in its executive ranks of late, has promoted Jim Norton to be its new head of sales.

The New York Internet company said Norton would be “responsible for sales on all of AOL’s owned & operated properties, including sites like The Huffington Post, Engadget, Stylelist and MapQuest,” as well as a range of other areas.

AOL has rejiggered its advertising execs and strategies several times in recent years, and Norton is not precisely replacing its former advertising head Jeff Levick (who left for Spotify) and is more akin to another top former AOL ad exec Mark Ellis (who left for Yahoo).

That job has now been folded into the portfolio of Chief Revenue Officer Ned Brody, to whom Norton will report.

“We need to become faster in our operations,” said Brody in an interview this morning about the shift. “We brought in Jim to bring in singular focus on selling.”

Brody said that AOL is working on how to increase the “value proposition” of its variety of advertising and marketing offerings and to quicken the process.

Norton came to AOL from Google in 2009 and before that worked in a wide range of ad jobs.

Here’s the official press release on the move:

JIM NORTON NAMED HEAD OF AOL SALES

New York, NY — December 9, 2011 — AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Ned Brody, Chief Revenue Officer, today announced the promotion of Jim Norton to head of AOL Sales. Effective today, Jim will be responsible for sales on all of AOL’s owned & operated properties, including sites like The Huffington Post, Engadget, Stylelist and MapQuest. Additionally, he will also lead the sales of all cross platform marketing solutions, including display/Project Devil initiative, video and mobile. This announcement is reflective of AOL’s commitment to putting the strongest leaders in place to service clients in the most efficient and effective manner. Jim will continue to report to Brody.

“Jim has proven himself within AOL to be a fantastic leader,” said Brody. “He not only has deep knowledge and incredible expertise in the marketplace, but a real ability to effect change.” Brody added, “Customers want the best products and packaged solutions all in a fast and efficient manner. Consolidation of leadership under Jim will place even more focus on putting our clients front and center and deliver on their goals and needs.”

“It’s a tremendous honor and opportunity to take on this new leadership role,” said Norton. “It allows me to continue to work with some of the best sales professionals in the business. It’s also a privilege to work with some of the world’s biggest brands.” He added, “We want to continue to be the preferred media partner for marketers and agencies.”

Jim joined AOL in 2009 and was SVP, AOL Advertising’s Advance Sales team, which focuses on national and regional advertisers across all categories, as well as new business. He was also VP of Product Sales working with AOL product teams on maximizing their offerings to advertisers, including MapQuest, Patch, AOL Mail, AOL Video and Mobile. He also managed AOL’s Search and Sponsored Listings business, and helped launch and manage AOL’s self service advertising platform, Ad Desk.

Jim has over 20 years of experience in the media business. Prior to joining AOL, he spent 3 years at Google most recently as National Sales Manager for Google’s Agency Activation team. Prior to that role, he was a Senior Account Executive on the National Tech B2B team servicing many of the leading global tech marketers. He’s also held a number of traditional sales and marketing roles, including four years as Sales Manager at Tribune Broadcasting’s WLVI-TV (Boston’s WB), radio ad sales at Kiss 108FM and a variety of brand marketing roles at Miller Brewing Company and GMR Marketing. He’s a life long Bostonian and graduated from Boston College with a BA in Communications and BC’s Carroll Graduate School of Business with an MBA in Marketing and Technology. He’s married with three children and splits his time between Boston and New York City.

Jared Grusd, AOL’s SVP of business development and chief of strategy, is leaving the New York Internet giant to work at Spotify, according to sources close to the situation.

At AOL, according to his bio, Grusd “oversees the organization responsible for all domestic and international strategic partnerships and commercial alliances for AOL and each of its operating units. He is also responsible for identifying and evaluating new corporate strategies and opportunities for the company.”

The marathon fiend and former Google exec — who held top legal-deal jobs there — also serves on AOL’s Executive Management Team.

It is not clear what the well-respected Grusd will be doing at the online music service, which has been expanding its executive ranks as it has moved aggressively into the U.S. market. But sources said it was a high-level position in New York.

Spotify recently hired former Clear Channel exec Gerrit Meier as GM of distribution and partnerships, reporting to U.S. head Ken Parks.

Spotify also just scooped up former AOL sales head Jeff Levick — another Google alum — as its chief advertising officer.

The departure of Grusd further thins out the exec ranks at AOL, which is still mired in a turnaround under the leadership of CEO Tim Armstrong (yes, he too is a former Googler!).

I lobbed a query into AOL PR for comment, and am awaiting news of my news.

Last month, the music subscription service hired a new sales boss: former AOL executive Jeff Levick. And now it has brought in someone to head up business development: Gerrit Meier, one of Clear Channel’s top digital executives.

Spotify confirmed that it has hired Meier, the former chief operating officer of digital at Clear Channel Radio, as “GM Distribution and Partnerships,” and that he’ll report to U.S. head Ken Parks in New York.

People familiar with his hire tell me his big-picture job is to put together international distribution and partnership deals. If, for instance, Spotify wanted to partner up with Verizon Wireless on a subscription package, he’d be the guy in charge of that.

Mr. Armstrong announced last week that Mr. Brody would replace Jeff Levick as president of AOL advertising and will become chief revenue officer, too. Mr. Brody previously oversaw AOL’s advertising and publishing technologies, a role in which he rarely met with major advertisers. The move was part of a broader shake-up at the company, which has been struggling to grow its ad business for years.

Many senior digital-ad executives said they hadn’t heard Mr. Brody’s name until last week. “I didn’t know him at all. He’s a new face,” said Quentin George, chief digital officer at Interpublic Group of Cos. media-buying unit Mediabrands.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Other departures include two recent hires: Lauren Hurvitz, brought on last fall to run PR; and HR head Kathy Andreasen, who joined at the same time.

Unlike the last round of body-moving at AOL, this one doesn’t seem to be prompted by the company’s acquisition of Huffington Post; unless I’m missing something in Armstrong’s memo to the staff, published below, no power seems to be shifting to Arianna Huffington or her team.

[UPDATE: An AOL insider posits that the "streamlined GM structure" Armstrong describes in his memo is indeed reflective of Huffington's wishes, noting she "hated" the existing AOL corporate architecture which featured many middle managers.]

It’s not a shock to see Levick leave: The gripe about him from the ad sales industry is that he’s not really an ad sales guy but a brainy analytical type. The problem, according to this line of thinking, is that a huge component of the ad business, even the digital ad business, is still about charisma and a firm handshake — the kind of qualities that Armstrong uses to great effect.

The more positive spin is that Levick has helped turn around AOL’s once-decimated sales operation over a long two-year slog, and that he should feel like he accomplished quite a bit. The company’s last earnings report, in fact, contained a modest surprise, with display ads moving up four percent (overall ad revenue was still down).

But if AOL sales are finally moving in the right direction, why change things now? I just got off the phone with Armstrong, who gave a non-answer about “the opportunity in front of AOL” being so large that it compelled a move: “I feel like our job, specifically my job, is to make sure we make very good long-term decisions about what makes us strongest in the marketplace.”

From: Armstrong, Tim
Date: Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 11:12 AM
Subject: Important Changes at AOL
To: All AOLers

AOLers –

As we continue the comeback of AOL we are focused on growth. We have a few announcements today that will make the company simpler, faster and stronger. Our strategy remains clear and consistent and our execution and operational clarity have improved. We have stabilized the foundation of the company and our future is about executing our growth strategies focused on:

1. Leading the digital content space
2. Leading the brand advertising space
3. Leading the premium video platform space
4. Leading the local content and advertising space
5. Leading the online membership services space

As we have focused our growth in this simplified product portfolio, we are now combining our advertising sales organization with our advertising network and products organization. We are not watching trends in the advertising business, we are creating them. Project Devil has traction and will help lead the brand space online. In the video space, we have gone from being out of the race to becoming one of the largest forces for digital video distribution.

The first announcement is a global structural change to our advertising business. We are promoting Ned Brody to the new position of Chief Revenue Officer and President of AOL Advertising. Ned will oversee AOL’s global O&O advertising, global network business, sales, and advertising and publishing products. There are three goals we are hoping to accomplish with Ned in this new position. The first is a unified premium strategy for advertisers and publishers. The second is consistent growth in advertising spend across all our properties and networks. The third is a more rigorous approach to advertising and publishing system design. This will allow us to connect Project Devil and our Premium Brand Formats to the O&O properties as well as the network.

In addition to our new CRO position, we are also announcing expanded leadership roles for five world-class leaders in our sales organization. Tim Castelli, Wendy MacGregor, Tim Richards, and Jim Norton will be promoted to SVP and Michael O’Connor will be promoted to VP, Head of Sales Operations. These leaders along with Don Kennedy, SVP of Advertising.com Sales, and Chris Heine, SVP of Advertising Operations will form our sales leadership team and join Ned’s management team.

As a result of this global change, Jeff Levick will be leaving AOL after a six week transition period. Jeff undertook one of the toughest jobs in the Internet space when he joined AOL. In the past two years, he developed a world-class leadership team, led the industry toward the future of premium formats for brand advertising, and helped lead a game-changing shift in perception and quality of the AOL advertising experience. Jeff is a friend to many of us and we know we will see big things from him in his future career. We have been working closely together on the design of the sales structure and we both believe it will positively impact results for our team and our customers.

The second announcement we are making is a streamlined GM structure reporting directly to me, overseeing the connection between content and monetization. The GM organization will allow us to profitably manage our investments in media and optimize the yield opportunities with traffic and revenue. We have already put the following GM leaders in place:

• AOL.com – Chris Grosso
• Huffington Post – Brian Kaminsky
• Entertainment – Kerry Trainor (e.g. Moviefone, AOL Music)
• Marketplace – Jay Kirsch (e.g., AOL Autos, Finance, and AOL Industry)
• Tech – Heather Harde (e.g., TechCrunch, Engadget)

Our third announcement is aimed at streamlining our corporate operations. Artie Minson, CFO of AOL and President of Paid Services, will now take on managing both our international planning and our Google search relationship, which is an important partnership on many levels. As part of Artie’s new responsibilities, he will be transitioning HR, Corporate Communications, and Marketing back to me.

We will be consolidating all marketing functions and the corporate communications team into a single organization run by Maureen Sullivan. Lauren Hurvitz will transition out of AOL as part of the consolidation. Kathy Andreasen is also transitioning out of the company. Lauren and Kathy have been big champions for AOL and trusted members of the management team. Sandy Mott will assume the role of interim head of HR. We will also be opening up a search for a Global Head of HR.

The future for AOL is getting brighter and we are on the path of returning AOL to growth. I care about our team and our AOL brand, our consumers and customers, and our long-term outcome – the announcements today have this at the core.

We have very clear operating plans for the second half of the year as we reviewed on the all-hands call a few weeks ago and we review detailed updates every week, and in some cases daily. We won’t be hitting the pause button this week, we’ll be on fast-forward.

I will be holding an all-hands call with the sales team today at 12:30pm ET to further address these changes and more fully address Jeff’s contribution to AOL.

We have an unprecedented opportunity everyday to positively impact consumers’ lives and our customers’ businesses. Let’s go make it happen – TA

As AOL CEO Tim Armstrong works to integrate his $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post into the Internet portal, one of its top advertising leaders is departing for a big job at Yahoo.

Mark Ellis will become head of the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s North American field sales, afterhttp://kara.allthingsd.com/wp-admin/my-sites.php serving in a wide variety of jobs at AOL and being a key lieutenant to global ad sales head Jeff Levick.

Previous to AOL, Ellis worked at sports marketing company IMG, at Quokka Sports, a sports Web site and at Time Inc. as publisher of Time Inc. New Media.

While there, he worked with Yahoo’s current U.S. ad sales head Wayne Powers.

While AOL portrayed the move as a well-planned reorganization in an internal memo, the departure of Ellis was a new wrinkle, as Armstrong has been contemplating how to best rejigger its key ad business after the bold acquisition of the news and opinion site run by its famous editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington.

Several sources said Armstrong found out a week ago about Yahoo’s interest in hiring Ellis, whom Yahoo had been pursing Ellis for far longer. Interestingly, he has been involved in the planning for the changes as the deal to buy the Huffington Post wraps up.

Sources said that deal is expected to close as soon as a week.

Previous to the Huffington Post situation, sources at AOL said the New York-based company has been contemplating a variety of changes, including Ellis’ role, in the ad department as its sales have continued to suffer.

Whatever the circumstances, an experienced ad sales exec like Ellis moving to a major AOL competitor is certainly a change.

Here is Levick’s staff memo on the changes in AOL’s ad unit, with the Ellis move buried low and with no mention of Yahoo (natch!):

Team–

One year ago this week, we decided to innovate the future of brand advertising for the digital world. Last night, our work was recognized by the industry in a meaningful and significant way. The race is on for the next phase of advertising on the Internet and we are in that race. We have more to do, but we’re going to do it and do it quickly.

Today, we also wanted to announce a set of changes that will allow us to expand and accelerate our ability to serve our customers on a deeper level. We now have a great suite of products to match our talented team. We also have an expanding base of consumers on some of the best brands on the Internet and that represents a very attractive proposition for our customers. The addition of The Huffington Post adds an incredibly talented team of sales people and journalists to our team and we have the ability to scale all aspects of our business.

I’m very happy to announce that over the next 90 days, we will be integrating The Huffington Post sellers into our regional teams and expanding the roles of three of our star field generals–Tim Richards, Wendy McGregor, and Tim Castelli. Wendy, Tim, and Tim will lead the sales for AOL and Huffington Post Media Group and report directly to me, moving them into a more central role in AOL’s revenue strategies and management.

Jim Norton will continue to lead the Advance Sales team but will also be taking on a new role as the VP of Product Sales, reporting into me. In this role, he will help realize the potential with Mail, AIM, Local, AOL.com and other core product solutions for National and Advance advertisers, serving as a critical ‘linchpin’ that connects our advertiser opportunities with AOL solutions. Christa Zambardino will continue to lead sales efforts for AOL.com and will report to Jim.

Don Kennedy will also report directly to me, taking our focus on the network to new levels and will continue to build out our Network Sales organization, working in close partnership with Dave Jacobs and Rob Luenberger.

Finally, Mark Ellis will be leaving the organization. I can’t thank Mark enough for all he has done for AOL and for the teams during his time here. He has been a great partner to me and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

We will continue to keep you updated on the status of the Huffington Post deal as well as any other organizational announcements. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Best,

Jeff

This comes on the heels of last week’s roster change, which saw media boss David Eun leave. And there will likely be more changes once the Huffington Post acquisition actually closes this spring.

Ad boss Jeff Levick–who was CEO Tim Armstrong’s first major hire after coming aboard from Google in 2009–walks the company through the changes in a memo, which you can read below.

Team–

One year ago this week, we decided to innovate the future of brand advertising for the digital world. Last night, our work was recognized by the industry in a meaningful and significant way. The race is on for the next phase of advertising on the Internet and we are in that race. We have more to do, but we’re going to do it and do it quickly.

Today, we also wanted to announce a set of changes that will allow us to expand and accelerate our ability to serve our customers on a deeper level. We now have a great suite of products to match our talented team. We also have an expanding base of consumers on some of the best brands on the Internet and that represents a very attractive proposition for our customers. The addition of The Huffington Post adds an incredibly talented team of sales people and journalists to our team and we have the ability to scale all aspects of our business.

I’m very happy to announce that over the next 90 days, we will be integrating The Huffington Post sellers into our regional teams and expanding the roles of three of our star field generals–Tim Richards, Wendy McGregor, and Tim Castelli. Wendy, Tim, and Tim will lead the sales for AOL and Huffington Post Media Group and report directly to me, moving them into a more central role in AOL’s revenue strategies and management.

Jim Norton will continue to lead the Advance Sales team but will also be taking on a new role as the VP of Product Sales, reporting into me. In this role, he will help realize the potential with Mail, AIM, Local, AOL.com and other core product solutions for National and Advance advertisers, serving as a critical ‘linchpin’ that connects our advertiser opportunities with AOL solutions. Christa Zambardino will continue to lead sales efforts for AOL.com and will report to Jim.

Don Kennedy will also report directly to me, taking our focus on the network to new levels and will continue to build out our Network Sales organization, working in close partnership with Dave Jacobs and Rob Luenberger.

Finally, Mark Ellis will be leaving the organization. I can’t thank Mark enough for all he has done for AOL and for the teams during his time here. He has been a great partner to me and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

We will continue to keep you updated on the status of the Huffington Post deal as well as any other organizational announcements. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Best,

Jeff

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is the gift that keeps on giving–at least to Greg Coleman.

He’s the Chief Revenue Officer at the Huffington Post, for which the Internet giant just forked over $315 million to acquire.

Sources said Coleman, who has run advertising sales at the privately held news and opinion site since the fall of 2009, will get a multimillion dollar payday from the deal, even though he is not staying on after it closes, since AOL has its own top ad guy.

Except that this is the very same Greg Coleman who had been running ad sales for AOL for only two weeks when Armstrong took over from ousted CEO Randy Falco in February of 2009.

Coleman was gone from AOL by the end of April, replaced by Armstrong with current ad sales head Jeff Levick.

And for those three months of work Coleman got paid out his entire three-year AOL contract.

Not bad work if you can get it.

Actually, many credit Coleman’s energetic work at the Huffington Post for turbocharging its ad sales revenue to $31 million in 2010 and projected revenue upward of $60 million in 2011.

Coleman is an experienced online ad exec who was at Yahoo for seven years, responsible for all advertising revenue worldwide. He came to Yahoo from Reader’s Digest.

But Coleman ran into Yahoo’s management buzz saw after trouble hit the company in 2007. He was one of the first in a long line of execs to leave the troubled company, departing in one of its many controversial reorganizations.

But Yahoo’s ad business did grow strongly under him and former Yahoo ad exec Wenda Millard.

Before AOL, Coleman ran a Los Angeles-based start-up called NetSeer, which focused on ad targeting.

Memo to soon-to-be unemployed Greg: You’re definitely buying lunch next time I see you, and keep in mind that BoomTown is feeling partial to caviar.

The latest exec to leave the Googleplex for AOL* is John Burke, who is now SVP of “Global Sales Strategy,” reporting to sales head Jeff Levick, who was Armstrong’s first major hire (from Google, of course).

Burke is a longtime Googler–he arrived pre-IPO, in 2002–who started off running the technology “vertical” for its sales team and eventually oversaw 10 more industry categories by the time he left. Last title: “Managing Director, Industry Development and Marketing.”

AOL provided me with this quote from Levick when I asked them about the hire:

“We are thrilled that John Burke has joined AOL as SVP, Global Sales Strategy, responsible for sales development, industry outreach and marketing. He will be focused on ensuring AOL brings unique insights and a customer driven approach to our partners. This is another step forward in creating the smartest, most sophisticated partner and customer driven organization in the advertising business.”

* Which needs a snappy name for its New York HQ. “The building above the KMart, which used to house MTV digital a long time ago” doesn’t work.

No word yet on what Seth will be doing at Yahoo (YHOO). UPDATE: Seth’s new position will be senior vice president, search products team, Yahoo announced on a blog post.

In the letter announcing his departure, below, he cites the new job’s strain on his family–it’s worth noting that his description of the situation is a bit more impassioned than the generic “leaving to spend time with his family” explanation, though not really more detailed.

Here’s what Jeff Levick, president of global advertising and strategy at AOL, said about Seth in September:

“Shashi is unmatched in the industry as an innovator with an outstanding track record of developing new and better ways to serve advertisers on the Web. As we move forward on our strategy of becoming the world’s largest provider of display advertising, Shashi will play a critical role in creating the best products in the business for our advertising partners.”

And here’s what Levick had to say about him today, followed by Shashi’s letter to his former colleagues:

From: Levick, Jeff

Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 3:12 PM

To: AOL_Advertising

Subject: AOL Advertising Organization Changes

AOL Advertising–Along with the other changes going on across the company today, I wanted to let you know Shashi Seth will also be leaving AOL effective today. While Shashi was only with us for 90 days, we appreciate the early steps he took to help us redefine AOL’s advertising product roadmap.? ?I’ve attached Shashi’s note below. As you’ll see he’s taken another position in the Valley–at Yahoo–which will enable him to remain closer to his family.

In the interim, Jamie Fellows will be leading our Global Advertising Products organization. I’ll look forward to seeing everyone at our All Hands next Tuesday and as always if you have questions, please let me know.

Best, ?Jeff

Dear Team:

It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that I am resigning from my role at AOL. Very recent developments in my personal life have made it impossible for me to maintain an executive role that requires extensive travel.

Over the last 3 months my relationship with my wife has been impacted severely, and the last 2 months have been very difficult for me as I saw my family unravel in front of my eyes. My family has always come first, and decided that we needed to give it everything we have to put this family back together. Spending more time together will be an important ingredient for success. The holidays gave us an opportunity to start that process, discuss plans for the future and laid out a plan that allows us to reset and rebuild our lives.

Last week I was approached by a Bay Area company about an interesting role, discussions progressed very quickly, and I’ve accepted their offer to join. This new role will enable me to remain local, and gives me lots of flexibility in where I work from (we might move to India for some time) and be available for my family, yet gives me something interesting and challenging to work on.

This is very hard for me, as I have enjoyed working with all of you, and truly believe in our products, vision and AOL as a company. The new organization, the new culture, the new focus, but above all having leaders like Tim and Jeff, all point to success in short order.

I apologize for all the inconvenience and the disruption caused by my action, and I hope you will understand. I will root for you from the sidelines, and celebrate AOL’s success. Someday, we may have the chance to work together again.??Jan 22nd will be my last day at work. Jeff and I have put together a transition plan that will allow us to continue business as usual. You will see emails and meeting invites that will start the process.??I will truly miss working with each and everyone of you.

Good Luck!

Shashi

Today’s example: Shashi Seth, the one-time “monetization” boss at YouTube, who was most recently running sales at Cooliris, the video Web wall start-up. His new job: Senior vice president of global advertising products, reporting to Armstrong’s lieutenant (and Google vet, natch), Jeff Levick.

I thought Seth’s job title sounded a whole lot like that of Senior Vice President of Global Sales Development Erin Clift, whom AOL brought out to meet with reporters last week. But AOL folks tell me Clift is still there and has a much different role: She’s the “agency and market guru” and he’s a product guy.

Seth will be working out of AOL’s Silicon Valley outpost with new hire Brad Garlinghouse, who comes to AOL not from Google but via Yahoo (YHOO).

Here’s the release.

NEW YORK, NY – September 29, 2009 – AOL announced that Shashi Seth has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Global Advertising Products, responsible for building and scaling AOL’s advertising platform and developing industry-leading products. Seth comes to AOL from Cooliris, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to that he was with Google, where he served most recently as head of monetization for YouTube.

“Shashi is unmatched in the industry as an innovator with an outstanding track record of developing new and better ways to serve advertisers on the Web,” said Jeff Levick, President of Global Advertising and Strategy at AOL. “As we move forward on our strategy of becoming the world’s largest provider of display advertising, Shashi will play a critical role in creating the best products in the business for our advertising partners.”

“I’m grateful to have the opportunity to come to AOL as it moves toward becoming an independent company,” said Seth. “The company already has an incredible combination of scale and a suite of great advertising products and technology, and I’m looking forward to working with AOL’s talented team to build on this strong foundation.”

Seth will report directly to Levick from AOL’s expanding Mountain View offices, joining Brad Garlinghouse, who was recently appointed to lead AOL’s Communications efforts and lead the company’s West Coast AOL Ventures efforts.

Prior to coming to AOL, Seth was with Cooliris, where he was responsible for revenue generation and business development. At Google, Seth was responsible for building advertising products, exploring all monetization opportunities, and defining business models for YouTube. Before that, Seth was the Product Lead for Web Search at Google. Prior to Google, Seth was with eBay, where he was responsible for building and managing eBay’s successful APIs & Platform. He has also worked for the Gap, where he launched their online stores, and co-founded two startups. Seth started his career at NASA Langley Research Center, where he built flight simulators and avionics equipment. Seth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Kanpur, India, a Masters in Computer Applications from the University of Pune, India, and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Miami.

One difference for the likes of me: Big ad sellers are making themselves very available to the press. This morning, for instance, AOL sent out CEO Tim Armstrong, sales boss Jeff Levick, sales deputy Erin Clift and content boss Bill Wilson to poke at eggs and ignore a plateful of bagels and lox.

Oh, and they talked, too! The big message was that they’re still in the process of overhauling the Internet giant on behalf of Time Warner (TWX), which brought in Armstrong from Google (GOOG) earlier this year and says it still plans on spinning off the company by the end of 2009.

Afterward, I got a brief interview (along with PaidContent’s David Armstrong) with the AOL chief. The video is at the bottom of the post, and you may need to turn up your speakers to hear it. But the takeaways are:

• AOL is still looking for a chief marketing officer. The search is in the “early stages.” Do you know anyone? Internet experience is not a prerequisite.
• More org chart moves, like the one that saw COO Kim Partoll pushed out last week, are coming. They’ll be part of the internal review process Armstrong has dubbed “Project Everest,” which should be complete by the end of the year.
• So are layoffs. See above.
• Internet ad dollars are beginning to flow out again–or if they’re not flowing, Armstrong thinks they will be, as big marketers like Procter & Gamble (PG) make permanent shifts in their advertising mixes.
• Armstrong professes to be surprised by a report last week that he had met with Yusuf Mehdi, who runs Bing and MSN for Microsoft (MSFT). “I know Yusuf. I’ve known him personally for years. So if I saw him I would be happy, but…”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090921/aol-more-org-chart-shuffles-coming-so-are-ad-dollars-but-mum-on-microsoft/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090915/another-aol-org-chart-shuffle-coo-partoll-search-boss-kannapell-out/ http://allthingsd.com/20090915/another-aol-org-chart-shuffle-coo-partoll-search-boss-kannapell-out/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:46:02 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=11011 This isn’t the long-rumored round of mass layoffs, but AOL boss Tim Armstrong did let go of two executives today: COO Kim Partoll is out, as is John Kannapell, SVP of search and local media.

Armstrong, who took over the Time Warner (TWX) unit earlier this year and is prepping it for a spinoff that’s supposed to happen by the end of 2009, doesn’t plan on replacing either executive, say people familiar with the matter. Instead, their work will be divvied up among other Armstrong lieutenants.

Partoll’s mobile responsibilities, for instance, will be given to new hire and former Yahoo (YHOO) exec Brad Garlinghouse, while Kannapell’s responsibilities will be handed to newish hire and former Google (GOOG) exec Jeff Levick. Armstrong himself will handle international duties, previously assigned to Partoll.

Kannapell’s departure isn’t a total shock, since he was listed as “acting head” of local during a reorg that Armstrong oversaw in June. But Partoll is a head-scratcher, since she was promoted to her new/old position during that same exec shuffle.

And what about those layoffs? Armstrong is almost certain to make some cuts at some point–and has told employees as much. But people familiar with the company say he hasn’t been focused on cost structure (i.e., cuts) until recently.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090915/another-aol-org-chart-shuffle-coo-partoll-search-boss-kannapell-out/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090827/aol-still-shaking-up-staff-hires-new-cfo-artie-minson/ http://allthingsd.com/20090827/aol-still-shaking-up-staff-hires-new-cfo-artie-minson/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:47:38 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=10396 Newish AOL CEO Tim Armstrong hasn’t gone on a massive firing binge. But he’s still shaking up the ranks at the Time Warner (TWX) unit. Today, for instance, he is installing a new chief financial officer: Artie Minson, the deputy CFO at sister company Time Warner Cable (TWC). Minson replaces Nisha Kumar, who held the spot for two years.

Minson is actually rejoining AOL–he was previously an SVP in its finance department and left to join Time Warner Cable prior to its own spinoff from Time Warner.

It’s one of a series of top-level moves Armstrong has made since leaving Google (GOOG) to run the Internet pioneer, now set to be spun off by its parent company later this year (if it isn’t sold first). He brought in Jeff Levick, another Google vet, to replace Greg Coleman as sales boss. And he purchased Patch Media, the local media company he had invested in, installing its CEO as the head of a newly created AOL venture arm. Former Bebo boss Joanna Shields is also out the door.

Here’s the release:

AOL NAMES ARTHUR MINSON AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Time Warner Cable Deputy CFO Rejoins AOL; Brings Critical Expertise from Time Warner Cable’s Successful Transition to Independent Public Company
New York, NY, August 27, 2009–AOL today named Arthur Minson as the company’s new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Minson joins AOL from Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), where he has served as Executive Vice President and Deputy CFO and helped manage that company’s separation from Time Warner. Prior to his role at Time Warner Cable, Minson led AOL’s Corporate Finance and Development activities. ??”We’re delighted to have Artie back at AOL as we continue our transition to an independent public company,” said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. “Artie’s strong financial acumen, operating experience, and deep understanding of our company and the Internet and content industries make him a perfect fit for AOL. He’s also a public company veteran who helped handle Time Warner Cable’s transition to a public company. Artie will hit the ground running and be a tremendous asset to AOL as we focus on driving growth, value and innovation.” ?”This is a wonderful opportunity to rejoin AOL at one of the most important and exciting times in this great company’s history,” said Minson. “AOL has an incredible collection of assets, and Tim has set the company on the right strategic course. I look forward to working with Tim and the entire AOL organization to help maximize the financial and operating performance of these assets and their value for investors.” ?In his new role, Minson will oversee the Company’s financial functions including accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury, human resources, mergers and acquisitions, and internal audit. Minson will be headquartered in New York City and will begin at AOL on September 8, 2009.? ?Minson previously served as Executive Vice President and Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Time Warner Cable, overseeing the company’s accounting, financial planning and analysis, operations finance, corporate services, and internal audit functions. He also worked closely with TWC’s treasury and IR departments, as well as senior management, to craft company strategy in those areas.
Minson joined Time Warner Cable in 2006 in connection with its planned IPO. Prior to that, Minson was Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Development at AOL, where he was responsible for financial planning and analysis, mergers and acquisitions and corporate financial administration. He’s also held senior finance positions at Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. and Time Warner Inc. Minson, a CPA, began his career in the Audit Practice of Ernst and Young as one of Time Warner’s principal outside auditors. He holds a BSBA in Accounting from Georgetown University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Columbia Business School.? ?On May 28, 2009, Time Warner Inc. announced that its Board of Directors had authorized management to proceed with plans for the complete legal and structural separation of AOL from Time Warner. Following the proposed transaction, AOL would be an independent, publicly traded company. Time Warner has indicated that it aims to complete the proposed transaction around the end of this year. ??Minson is replacing Nisha Kumar, who left the company earlier this summer.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090827/aol-still-shaking-up-staff-hires-new-cfo-artie-minson/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090717/exclusive-patch-media-ceo-brod-now-heading-aols-venture-unit/ http://allthingsd.com/20090717/exclusive-patch-media-ceo-brod-now-heading-aols-venture-unit/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:39:00 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=15953

In yet another appointment of an exec close to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, Patch Media CEO Jon Brod (pictured here) has taken over the new venture arm of the Time Warner (TWX) online unit.

AOL confirmed the appointment to BoomTown.

Patch is a hyperlocal community news site, in which Armstrong was the major investor. It was bought by AOL in June for just under $10 million.

Like recently installed AOL advertising head Jeff Levick, who worked with Armstrong at Google (GOOG), Brod has also known him for a long time.

He ran Patch for Armstrong and was president and COO of Polar Capital Group, Armstrong’s private investment company, which is focused on the media, technology and sports sectors.

Previous to that, Brod worked as an exec at InterActiveCorp (IACI) and even at the National Basketball Association.

Now Brod will helm AOL Ventures, a new unit of AOL that Armstrong created as part of a larger new strategy to invest in new things, and he will manage a portfolio of some of its more difficult recent acquisitions.

That means Brod will be figuring out what to do with AOL’s pricey purchase of its Bebo social networking site, as well as the Truveo video search unit, widgetmaker Userplane.

Sources close to the situation said AOL is bullish on Truveo (even though the previous management at AOL was poised to sell it), thinks Userplane’s once-promising prospects have dwindled due to neglect and will likely seek to sell Bebo.

But Brod will also be charged with investing in start-ups and also incubating.

“The Ventures group is about fostering innovation around the globe,” said Brod, in an interview with me. “And we’re going to create the Internet’s most entrpreneurial-friendly environment in order to accomplish this.”

The New York-based Patch is a platform that does deeply localized coverage of communities on a range of topics, from announcements to news to events to obituaries. It is aimed at competing with local newspapers and other media.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090717/exclusive-patch-media-ceo-brod-now-heading-aols-venture-unit/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090514/more-tim-armstrong-fallout-execs-leaving-google-aol/ http://allthingsd.com/20090514/more-tim-armstrong-fallout-execs-leaving-google-aol/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 20:30:08 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=7382 More ripple effects from Tim Armstrong’s departure from Google to run AOL for Time Warner (TWX): Tom Phillips, Google’s director of search and analytics, is out.

No word on whether he has a new job lined up, but it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see him land at AOL. Armstrong has already brought over former Googler Jeff Levick to replace Greg Coleman as head of ad sales, and the chatter is that he’ll bring over more Google (GOOG) vets before he’s done making over his team. And Phillips, I’m told by multiple sources, “was a Tim guy.”

UPDATE: AOL officials say there are no plans to bring Phillips on board.

Meanwhile, Armstrong/Levick have been overhauling their new sales team. Earlier this week they let go of 17 people, primarily in sales support. But those cuts had actually been planned by Coleman, who wanted to reallocate resources away from sales support and expand his sales team.

Phillips’s departure comes after multiple high-level executives have left Google’s sales team, which is now overseen by Nikesh Arora and run day-to-day by Dennis Woodside. No comment from the Google PR team.

His resume is a bit different from your typical Googler’s: For one thing, he graduated from Harvard in the 1970s. He put in time at Spy magazine and Disney’s (DIS) Web 1.0 team and then ran Dejanews.com, selling what was left of that company to Google after the first bubble popped. At Google, Phillips ran the company’s now-shuttered print advertising program and helped oversee integration of Doubleclick.

[Image credit: Hitchster]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090514/more-tim-armstrong-fallout-execs-leaving-google-aol/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090502/weekend-update-50309-special-musical-chairs-edition/ http://allthingsd.com/20090502/weekend-update-50309-special-musical-chairs-edition/#comments Sat, 02 May 2009 07:00:44 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=16790 If there was an over-arching theme for this week at All Things D, it would have to be musical chairs.

Brand new MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta started things off Monday with his first day on the job. He was joined by new COO and former AOL exec Mike Jones and new chief product officer and former Sling Media exec Jason Hirschhorn. Down in Los Angeles at the AlwaysOn OnHollywood conference, Boomtown ran smack into Huff Post mastermind Arianna Huffington, who extolled the virtues and abilities of new managing editor Jai Singh, former editor-in-chief of CNET Networks. At AOL, in preparation for spinning off the Time Warner (TWX) Online unit, new CEO Tim Armstrong began appointing new senior execs and spinning off existing ones. Platform-A president and former Yahoo (YHOO) sales exec Greg Coleman, who joined the AOL team in February, is leaving the company, to be replaced by Jeff Levick, who is leaving Google (GOOG)–where he had a close relationship with Armstrong. CFO Nisha Kumar is also leaving AOL, and a search is underway for her replacement. MediaMemo has more on Time Warner’s decision to spin off AOL. A number of Flickr engineers were laid off Wednesday, but Chief Architect Cal Henderson has left the company of his own accord and is working on a stealth start-up with Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield. Last, but not least, one of the voices covering the digital scene has found a new gig. Owen Thomas, self-described “scourge of [Silicon] Valley,” is leaving Valleywag to head up GE (GE) unit NBC Universal’s new “Bay Area” Web site, whose motto is “Locals Only.” He’ll be replaced by fresh-faced Ryan Tate, recently the night editor for Gawker. Both reporters talked to BoomTown on Friday about the changes.

MediaMemo wrote on Monday about Condé Nast shutting down Portfolio–both the print magazine and the accompanying Web site. On a cautionary note, MM outlined the reasons why Portfolio’s business magazine peers should not celebrate the loss of a competitor, even (or especially) during tough economic times. Is the meteoric ascension of Twitter flattening out? According to a Nielsen Online study, 60 percent of Twitter’s users leave after a month. This was met with a lot of skepticism so Nielsen ran the numbers again with the same results–and this time it’s sticking with them. MediaMemo also had an explanation for why the long-awaited deal between Disney (DIS) and Hulu took months and months and millions of dollars to finally come together. Digital Daily had more on that story.

Digital Daily also had more info on the ever-evolving Palm (PALM) Pre story. First, a rumor that Palm plans to launch the handset on June 7–which would be crazy, given the fact that June 8 is both the first day of Apple’s (AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference and the day that those in the know expect the next-generation iPhone to drop. Then, there’s an assertion by Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar based on supply chain research that Palm has greatly reduced its production numbers. Time will have to tell, though, because Palm certainly isn’t talking yet. Of course, things could be worse. Dell (DELL) hasn’t even solidified plans for its rumored smartphone, and already, no one really cares.

Dell’s new Adamo laptop and Studio One 19 desktop aren’t causing much excitement either. In this week’s Personal Technology column, Walt Mossberg reports that although both machines look good and function well, neither is groundbreaking. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answered readers’ questions about improving performance on a PC, using peripheral devices with an iPhone and installing Apple’s OS X on a Windows machine. And in this week’s Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret tested three apps from the iTunes App Store that make it possible for the iPod touch to function like an iPhone.

More next week.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090502/weekend-update-50309-special-musical-chairs-edition/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090430/time-for-aolers-to-meet-their-new-sales-boss-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20090430/time-for-aolers-to-meet-their-new-sales-boss-again/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:12:24 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=6852

Kara Swisher broke the story last night, but for the record, here’s the AOL press release announcing the Time Warner unit’s umpteenth new sales boss. Meet Jeff Levick, a Google (GOOG) vet who replaces Yahoo (YHOO) vet Greg Coleman, who just started in February.

Coleman’s departure won’t come as a shock to many online ad executives, who were predicting he’d leave as soon as AOL CEO Tim Armstrong started on April 7, if not sooner.

Then again, Armstrong never asked Coleman to slow down or reconsider the reorg of the sales group that he’d been undertaking on his own. Now it’s unclear whether he wants his former colleague to follow Coleman’s lead or blow every thing up yet again.

Presumably this will all be cleared up before Time Warner (TWX) spins off the Internet company.

JEFF LEVICK NAMED HEAD OF AOL GLOBAL ADVERTISING AND STRATEGY

New York, NY – April 30, 2009 – AOL announced that Jeff Levick will join the company as President, Global Advertising and Strategy. In this new and expanded role, Levick will be responsible for Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, as well as developing global revenue strategies. Levick comes to AOL from Google, where he was most recently VP of Industry Development and Marketing, The Americas. He will report directly to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong.

“Our goal at AOL is to create great content and products, as well as make our advertising offerings the best in the industry for marketers and we are putting together the strategy to achieve that. I’m delighted that Jeff will be coming on board to lead this effort,” Armstrong said. “I’ve worked with Jeff for more than seven years at Google, and he is absolutely the right person to drive growth in our premium ad sales, dramatically scale our Advertising.com business, and further develop AOL’s research initiatives and consumer insights.”

“This is a perfect time to join AOL and I firmly believe that AOL’s best days are ahead of it,” said Levick. “The company has one of the largest and most engaged audiences on the Web, some of the best advertising technology in the business, and a powerful third-party network. There is great opportunity here for us to capture.”

As a result of this change, Greg Coleman will be leaving Platform-A, where he has served as President since early February 2009.

“In only a short time, Greg made a strong imprint on Platform-A’s sales organization – reorganizing and refocusing the team,” said Armstrong. “I appreciate his efforts and know that they will contribute to the work that lies ahead with Platform-A.”

Levick will officially join AOL in the coming weeks. At Google, Levick was responsible for business marketing activities for the Americas as well as sales development and strategy for all of the vertical industries covered by Google’s Americas sales organization. Levick joined Google in 2001 and has held various executive management positions in the company’s advertising sales organization in both North America and Europe.

Prior to joining Google, Levick served as a corporate attorney with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions at the international law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman, and held roles at various online ventures in Chicago. He currently serves on the board of directors of Helium.com, the advisory board of the College of Communications at DePaul University and as an advisory board member of the global trade organization Search Engine Strategies (SES). Levick holds a J.D. from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree from New York University, where he graduated cum laude.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090430/time-for-aolers-to-meet-their-new-sales-boss-again/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090429/exclusive-platform-a-head-coleman-out-at-aol-as-well-as-cfo-and-more-to-come/ http://allthingsd.com/20090429/exclusive-platform-a-head-coleman-out-at-aol-as-well-as-cfo-and-more-to-come/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:23:51 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=12977

[UPDATE: AOL confirmed our story below about Coleman's departure and Levick's appointment. See below.]

Platform-A President Greg Coleman–the former Yahoo advertising sales exec who came to AOL only three months ago–is leaving the company, sources said, as new CEO Tim Armstrong remakes his top staff in preparation to spin off the Time Warner (TWX) online unit.

Coleman was brought to AOL by former CEO Randy Falco in February, replacing Lynda Clarizio. But Falco was ousted two weeks after Coleman got there.

Armstrong, sources said, announced the moves to staff tonight, right after he told Coleman about his decision late today.

Coleman will be replaced by a Google ad exec, Jeff Levick, sources said, who had a close relationship with Armstrong when they were both working at Google (GOOG).

AOL said in a press release that Levick would become “President, Global Advertising and Strategy, a new and expanded role, in which he would be “responsible for Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, as well as developing global revenue strategies.”

Levick will be the third major Google advertising exec to leave the company recently, after Armstrong himself and today’s departure of former DoubleClick boss David Rosenblatt.

Levick (pictured here) was a VP of industry development & marketing, the Americas. He has been at Google since 2001.

Also out: CFO Nisha Kumar, who came to AOL in early 2007 from Time Warner. She was told of the decision earlier, and there has been a search on for her replacement.

It is a time of much change at AOL. Yesterday, Time Warner reiterated its intent to spin off AOL in a regulatory filing, and to buy back the five percent stake Google owns.

Time Warner also had to deliver bad news about AOL’s disappearing ad revenue today in its quarterly earnings report. It was down 20 percent.

Its ad business has not been helped by the fact that AOL has seen a number of Platform-A heads roll over the last two years.

Coleman is an experienced online ad exec, who was at Yahoo (YHOO) for seven years, responsible for all advertising revenue worldwide. He came to Yahoo from Reader’s Digest.

But Coleman ran into Yahoo’s management buzzsaw after trouble hit the company in 2007. He was one of the first in a long line of execs to leave the troubled company, departing in one of its many controversial reorganizations.

But Yahoo’s ad business did grow strongly under him and former Yahoo ad exec Wenda Millard. She was also pushed out of Yahoo and just left her job as co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Before AOL, Coleman had been running a Los Angeles-based start-up called NetSeer, which focuses on ad targeting.

While at AOL a short time, Coleman had busied himself reshuffling the staff there in several moves.

He has a three-year contract, sources said, which AOL will presumably have to pay out on.

Here is the official AOL press release:

JEFF LEVICK NAMED HEAD OF AOL GLOBAL ADVERTISING AND STRATEGY

New York, NY–April 30, 2009–AOL announced that Jeff Levick will join the company as President, Global Advertising and Strategy. In this new and expanded role, Levick will be responsible for Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, as well as developing global revenue strategies. Levick comes to AOL from Google, where he was most recently VP of Industry Development and Marketing, The Americas. He will report directly to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong.

“Our goal at AOL is to create great content and products, as well as make our advertising offerings the best in the industry for marketers and we are putting together the strategy to achieve that. I’m delighted that Jeff will be coming on board to lead this effort,” Armstrong said. “I’ve worked with Jeff for more than seven years at Google, and he is absolutely the right person to drive growth in our premium ad sales, dramatically scale our Advertising.com business, and further develop AOL’s research initiatives and consumer insights.”

“This is a perfect time to join AOL and I firmly believe that AOL’s best days are ahead of it,” said Levick. “The company has one of the largest and most engaged audiences on the Web, some of the best advertising technology in the business, and a powerful third-party network. There is great opportunity here for us to capture.”

As a result of this change, Greg Coleman will be leaving Platform-A, where he has served as President since early February 2009.

“In only a short time, Greg made a strong imprint on Platform-A’s sales organization–reorganizing and refocusing the team,” said Armstrong. “I appreciate his efforts and know that they will contribute to the work that lies ahead with Platform-A.”

Levick will officially join AOL in the coming weeks. At Google, Levick was responsible for business marketing activities for the Americas as well as sales development and strategy for all of the vertical industries covered by Google’s Americas sales organization. Levick joined Google in 2001 and has held various executive management positions in the company’s advertising sales organization in both North America and Europe.

Prior to joining Google, Levick served as a corporate attorney with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions at the international law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman, and held roles at various online ventures in Chicago. He currently serves on the board of directors of Helium.com, the advisory board of the College of Communications at DePaul University and as an advisory board member of the global trade organization Search Engine Strategies (SES). Levick holds a J.D. from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree from New York University, where he graduated cum laude.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090429/exclusive-platform-a-head-coleman-out-at-aol-as-well-as-cfo-and-more-to-come/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20090313/who-replaces-tim-armstrong-at-google-the-david-rosenblatt-fan-club-pipes-up/ http://allthingsd.com/20090313/who-replaces-tim-armstrong-at-google-the-david-rosenblatt-fan-club-pipes-up/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:00:22 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=5223

Tim Armstrong was considered a star inside and outside of Google, and his former company worked hard to keep the sales executive on the reservation.

But now that’s he’s bolted for Time Warner (TWX), who will replace him?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has already promised to name a successor “in the coming weeks,” and he’s narrowed the field by declaring it will be an internal candidate.

Who might that be? According to a (very informal) flash poll of Googlers, ex-Googlers and Google competitors I conducted last night, the answer should be obvious: David Rosenblatt (pictured), the former Doubleclick CEO, who now runs Google’s display business.

A sampling of the responses: “The only choice,” “I would assume they will work hard on Rosenblatt, who may not do it,” “Shoe-in,” etc.

The flip side of the conventional wisdom is that Rosenblatt, who came aboard a year ago when Google (GOOG) completed its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, may be leaving, and will leave if he doesn’t get Armstrong’s job.

For more Rosenblatt testimonials, consult this Silicon Alley Insider article, where the blog’s readers anointed the executive as the best choice to run Yahoo (YHOO).

But what if Schmidt, like Yahoo’s board, decides to ignore the Rosenblatt fan club?

My respondents have plenty of other suggestions. And unlike Rosenblatt, most of these other would-be candidates were brought on by Armstrong, which may or may not count for something. In no particular order:

Jeff Levick, VP, industry development & marketing, the Americas. Googler since 2001.

Tom Phillips, director of search and analytics; former head of Doubleclick integration; former head of Google print ads. Googler since 2006.

Eileen Naughton, director, media platforms; former head of East Coast sales. Googler since 2007.

Penry Price, VP, North American ad sales. Googler since 2004.

David Fischer, VP, global online sales. Googler since 2002.

Nikesh Arora, president, European, Middle East and African markets. Googler since 2004.

Joan Braddi, VP search services. Googler since 2000.

All right, readers–your turn to weigh in. Who do you want filling Armstrong’s large shoes? And who do you think Google will actually pick?

If you feel strongly enough to register using your real name, please leave a comment below. If you want to do this sotto voce, you can reach me directly at peter@allthingsd.com.

And if you want to be completely anonymous, which is understandable but less useful to me (I won’t have any way of reaching you for follow-up), you can use the blind tip box here. I’ll update this post or craft a new one as I gather more string.

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