Execs & Accounts for June 28, 2006

About.com made two executive sales promotions. Nicholas Ricci becomes SVP of sales, overseeing all sales, client services and ad operations for the site. Seashal Morse moves up to VP of West Coast sales.

Organic hired Rick Corteville as executive director of media. He’ll work closely with new EVP of emerging platforms Chad Stoller.

David Beach, senior product manager of Yahoo Shopping Search, is leaving the company after five years to join social search engine Wink. He’ll be director of product management.

NYTimes.com promoted Robert Larson to VP of product development and management. Larson will guide expanded search, interactivity and new technologies such as the new Times Reader edition of the paper for portable devices. He was previously director of product management and development.

Meredith Corporation tapped Blast Radius to redesign the Web site for “Better Homes and Gardens.” The digital marketing and strategy firm recently hired Jeff Faulkner as executive creative director for the West Coast.

SmartSearch Marketing hired Matt Harper as director of Internet services and Chris Harkins as director of sales. Harper previously developed Web marketing programs for Coca Cola and Mazda, and Harkins managed new business sales at Jupiter Media Metrix.

Postini hired Daniel Druker as EVP of worldwide marketing. Druker joins from IBM, where he developed the company’s data management strategy.

Accipiter signed online classified advertising firm Classified Ventures as a customer for its AdManager hosted ad management product. The client has rolled out AdManager on Cars.com.

Powered named Jim Nail to its board of advisors. Nail is the chief marketing and strategy officer for Cymfony, and was previously a Forrester analyst. Powered provides online courses sponsored by, or provided by, marketers.

Coremetrics hired Jeff Schmidt as worldwide VP of sales. Schmidt previously held senior posts with WebEx, Blue Pumpkin Software and Lucent.

Autobytel hired Jonathan Rosen as SVP of Web business operations, a new position. Rosen was head of strategy and business development for AOL’s search group.

EmailLabs VP of Marketing Loren McDonald has been promoted to VP and chief marketing officer of parent company J.L. Halsey. McDonald is a ClickZ columnist.

Video syndication network ROO signed Alpha Mom TV to its content network. ROO will offer parenting content from Alpha Mom consisting of three to five minute video shorts.

AzoogleAds tapped eStara to provide click-to-call ad services on its affiliate network and vertical Web sites.

Tacoda will use Rapt’s software for pricing and revenue management on its behaviorally-targeted network. Rapt juggles inventory, audience, pricing, and revenue trends data to increase margins.

U.S. Senatorial candidate Mike McGavick, who hails from Washington State, is using rich media ads from Viewpoint in his election campaign. McGavick’s ad agency is Media Plus+. Ads are now running on several local Washington Web sites.

YellowPages.com, a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth, hired Brad Mohs as chief technology officer. He joins from Scientific Games Corporation.

Avenue A | Razorfish hired Eric Livingston as creative director in its central region offices. Livingston was VP and digital creative director for Young & Rubicam Brands/Wunderman in Dearborn, Mich.

E-mail marketing firm iPost promoted Russell McDonald to CEO, and appointed Stephen Webster to lead a new Strategic Services division. McDonald was the company’s VP of sales. Webster is the company’s chief strategy officer.

Rare Method has hired eight employees. They include the appointment of Fritz Tolentino as art director, David Nagy as SEO specialist, and Hugh Burnham as online marketing strategist.

Zunch Communications hired Chadd Lomoglio as EVP. Lomoglio was previously EVP of MarketSmart Interactive, formerly called WebSourced.