AOL grabs Razorfish digital king Bob Lord for a key role
The global CEO of Razorfish, Bob Lord, is joining AOL Networks as CEO.
Bob Lord: key role at AOL
He is a big loss to Publicis. Lord , 13 years at Razorfish before it was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2009, had become a key figure in the French company's aim to get most of its revenue from digital marketing. Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy had charged him with charting the company's digital future.
In 2011 Lord was named to oversee a "digital transformation team" within the group. He oversaw a cross-agency team including the DigitasLBInetwork and Denuo.
Various Publicis Groupe executives are stepping up to take over his responsibilities, said Adage. Pete Stein, becomes global CEO; Shannon Denton becomes U.S. CEO of Razorfish, and Rishad Tobaccowala is the new chairman of Razorfish and DigitasLBI.
It's a major career change for Mr. Lord, who's 50, to transition to the media-seller side of the business, said AdAge. "Prior to Razorfish he served as a digital consultant for the bulk of his career."
In his new job, he will oversee all aspects of AOL Networks, servicing more than 22,000 publishers and 4,000 advertiser and agency clients. He will report to AOL Chairman and CEO, Tim Armstrong, and be a member of the AOL corporate leadership team.
He replaces Ned Brody, who resigned in April after receiving an offer to run Yahoo's key Americas sales org but.
According to unnamed sources, Brody remains in "non-compete contract limbo," said AdAge.
AOL chairman Armstrong said Lord had a proven track record of driving innovation and his energy and drive will accelerate growth at AOL Networks. In a memo to employees, Armstrong called it "a game-changing day."
Lord, who also wrote a note to AOL employees, said the company is in a unique position to create an end-to-end ad-tech stack that is focused on premium digital media.
"There is only one other company that has the tech stack that we have at AOL Networks -- and last I checked, Google was squarely focused on owning the long-tail, not premium, which marketers are seeking as they navigate the new multi-channel marketing landscape," he wrote.