NetCreations CEO Resnick to Depart
The firm's top post won't be filled, as its co-founder seeks new business opportunities.
NetCreations plans to bid farewell to co-founder and chief executive Rosalind Resnick, after almost seven years of serving as a leader in the email marketing space.
The company said that Resnick, who helped found the New York-based firm in 1995, is leaving to pursue other business opportunities, and to spend more time with family. Resnick will continue to consult for the company, it said.
The departure marks the end of another chapter in the story of NetCreations. The past seven years saw NetCreations emerge as one of the early titans in the opt-in email space, experience a massive rise in valuation after going public, and, in more recent years, face increased competition from online ad players that were expanding into email — such as DoubleClick, L90 and 24/7 Media.
Following the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, NetCreations began entertaining offers for an acquisition. SEAT Pagine Gialle, a European Web and yellow pages advertising firm, ultimately outbid DoubleClick to acquire the company. NetCreations shareholders approved the merger in mid-February of this year.
Recent months also saw the firm experimenting with a new direction, as it began dabbling in single-opt-in after concentrating on double-opt-in since its inception. Indeed, double-opt-in had been the cornerstone of the company’s competitive positioning as “the leader in 100% Opt In email”.
In keeping with the sweeping changes, Resnick’s post will not be filled. Instead, NetCreations’ president and chief operating officer, Michael Mayor, will report directly to Marie-Laure Sauty de Chalon, senior vice president of Consodata North America, an Internet unit of SEAT Pagine Gialle.
Despite Resnick’s departure, SEAT Pagine Gialle management said it remains comfortable with the direction of the company.
“Rosalind has done a tremendous job of managing the company in good times and bad,” said Marc Henon, head of the SPG’s business information division. “I regret her decision, but I fully understand the new direction that she has decided to take after seven years at NetCreations. Michael [Mayor] has worked side by side with Rosalind for almost four years, and I am extremely confident in Michael’s ability to run and expand the company on behalf of Consodata Group.”
For her part, Resnick said in a statement that it was simply her time to move on.
“I have been CEO of NetCreations for almost seven years, and I feel that it is time for me to move on,” she said. “I have seen this company grow from a home-based business to a public company to a subsidiary of an international conglomerate, and I have absolute confidence in the ability of Mike and the rest of our management team to build our business to new heights.”
Prior to founding NetCreations with former chief technical officer Ryan Scott Druckenmiller, Resnick served as a writer and editor at a host of traditional and online outlets. After stints in the 80s at The Baltimore Sun and The Miami Herald, she co-authored The Internet Business Guide, and oversaw America Online’s NetGirl forum for a time. From 1994 to 1997, Resnick served as the editor and publisher of Interactive Publishing Alert, a semi-monthly newsletter covering Web publishing and advertising.
