AdMob's Tony Nethercutt Joins Rival Firm Mojiva

Tony Nethercutt has left Google’s AdMob mobile ad network to join rival Mojiva as general manager, North America.

Nethercutt was VP of sales at AdMob, where he built the sales, account management, and creative functions. His duties at Mojiva are broader, encompassing both the company’s Mocean Mobile ad management platform and its Mojiva mobile ad network.

Nethercutt is not the first senior AdMob staffer to make for the exit since the ad network was bought by Google. The most notable of its departures is CEO Omar Hamoui, who left in October. But the total number of the departed is small relative to its total headcount. AdMob employed an estimated 105 people at the time of its sale to Google, and a large majority is still there.

Speaking with ClickZ, Nethercutt said he was motivated by the opportunity to once again build a sales and marketing team – something he did at both AdMob and YouTube before their respective sales to Google. He said Mojiva intends to significantly hire up in the U.S., including in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

“There’s an advantage to being made for mobile from the ground up,” he said. Among the benefits: “You can achieve scale rather quickly as a mobile network.”