Execs & Accounts for February 2, 2007
Bryan Lee departs Microsoft; WeatherBug promotes Lombardi to head national sales.
Bryan Lee, corporate VP of Microsoft’s entertainment business, has left the company to pursue personal interests, the company said. Lee helped develop the Xbox business, was the first Entertainment and Devices divisional CFO, and oversaw the launch of Zune. His duties will be divided between J Allard, corporate VP of design and development for the entertainment and devices division; Joe Belfiore, who leads the Windows Media Center division; and Enrique Rodriguez, corporate VP of the Microsoft TV Division.
WeatherBug has promoted Mike Lombardi to VP of national sales. WeatherBug provides live, local weather information services.
Neverblue Media has been acquired by Vertrue. The affiliate marketing firm, along with sister company PhoneInterviewed.com, has been acquired by Internet marketing services company Vertrue. Neverblue Media will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Vertrue.
UK firm MGN Digital partnered with ROO to launch an online video portal for its flagship websites: mirror.co.uk and sundaymirror.co.uk. The sites will feature ROO video players.
TRUSTe appointed Jonathan Hart, Jules Polonetsky and Donald Whiteside to its board of directors. The online privacy certification organization also named Frank Thibodeau to VP of business operations. Jonathan Hart is from law firm Dow Lohnes PLLC; Jules Polonetsky is chief privacy officer and SVP of consumer advocacy at AOL; and Donald Whiteside is VP of the corporate technology group and director of technical policy and standards at Intel. Ralph Terkowitz, general partner at ABS Capital Partners, is now chairman of the board, succeeding Richard Purcell, founder of the corporate privacy group.
Ripple added five execs and two board advisors. Ripple, which develops out-of-home digital networks, named Joe Hasenzahl VP of operations; Adam Korman VP of design and user experience; Matthew New VP of products; Jason Seldon VP of finance and administration; and Ron Vaisbort VP of corporate alliances. Kerry Coin, principal and co-founder of The Kerma Group, and Amin Vahdat, an associate professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UC San Diego, joined the board.
