Google’s Head of Enterprise Apps to Run Virtual Reality Business
Amit Singh
Amit Singh, the president of Google for Work, the company's unit that sells its suite of apps to other companies, is now leading business and operations for Google's nascent virtual reality division. Singh, a former Oracle sales exec, has lead Google for Work since 2010.
Facebook Goes Through Several Leadership Changes
Paul Grewal, a magistrate judge in San Jose federal court, is joining Facebook as Deputy General Counsel in charge of litigation. Grewal has been on the bench since 2010. He has been on the court's technology and patent committees. Before joining the bench as a magistrate, Grewal worked at the law firms Pillsbury Madison & Sutro and at Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder as well as serving as a law clerk to Federal Circuit appeals court judge Arthur J. Gajarsa.
Facebook hired Google's Regina Dugan to head up a new R&D group focused on hardware, called Building 8. Dugan, who leads the Advanced Technology and Products group at Google, is also a former director of the US military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
VP Mike Buckley is leaving the company to work full time at New Frontier Foods, a food company he co-founded back in 2012. Caryn Marooney, Buckley’s counterpart running product and technology communications, will step in to manage the entire communications team.
Alibaba Group Appoints International Corporate Communications Head; Establishes Netherlands Operations with New Leader
Alibaba Group appointed Jennifer Kuperman as Head of International Corporate Communications. Kuperman will replace Jim Wilkinson (current Head of International Corporate Affairs) who will be leaving Alibaba in the coming months to start a new entrepreneurial venture.
Kuperman, who currently serves as VP, Head of Strategy for International Corporate Affairs, is a proven international communications leader who has spent the last two years helping leading global communications strategy and execution for Alibaba. Prior to Alibaba, Kuperman was SVP and Head of Corporate Marketing and Reputation at Visa.
Alibaba Group appointed Roland Palmer as managing director of Alibaba Group Netherlands and member of the Alibaba Group EU leadership team. Prior to joining Alibaba, he was CEO of Blokker Holding where he helped in transforming a traditional offline retail company into an omnichannel group.
IBM Names Former AOL President as Chief Digital Officer
Bob Lord
IBM has tapped Bob Lord, a former president at AOL and the former CEO of the Web advertising firm Razorfish, as its chief digital officer. As president, Lord had pressed AOL to focus on automating its advertising technologies, and during his tenure the Internet company acquired several firms that played in that space. Lord was the driving force behind AOL’s acquisitions of Millennial Media, the Web-personalization startup Gravity and Convertro, a startup focused on ad attribution.
Amazon Names Retail and Cloud Computing Heads as CEOs of Their Respective Units
Amazon announced that Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon’s consumer business, and Andy Jassy, the head of its Amazon Web Services cloud computing business, are now CEOs of those respective units. Essentially Wilke and Jassy have been doing these jobs for some time. Jassy took what seemed at first in 2006 which is on track to become a $10 billion annual business by the end of this year. Wilke, on the other hand, runs Amazon’s core retail business worldwide.
Former KPMG Partner Retires From Priceline’s Board
Howard W. (Skip) Barker, Jr., 68, has informed The Priceline Group that he has decided to retire from the Company's Board. He serves as Treasurer at Senior Services of Stamford. Barker was a Partner of KPMG from July 1982 to September 2002, where he joined in July 1972.
Retired Partner of PwC Retires from Board of Chinese language Internet Search Provider Baidu
William Decker, 68, will step down from Baidu’s board of directors. Decker is a retired partner of PwC. Prior to his retirement in July 2005, he was the senior partner in charge of PwC’s Global Capital Markets Group.
Netflix Appoints Media and Technology Industry Vet as VP, BD for APAC
Anthony Zameczkowski
Anthony Zameczkowski has joined Netflix as VP, business development for Asia-Pacific. Prior to Netflix, Zameckowski was running the international operations of Victorious, a Kleiner Perkins-backed startup in the mobile video space.
Yahoo! Announces Board Changes After Agreement with Starboard Value LP; Important Execs Leave
Yahoo! has reached an agreement with Starboard Value and its affiliates under which four new independent directors, Tor R. Braham, Eddy W. Hartenstein, Richard S. Hill, and Jeffrey C. Smith, Starboard’s CEO and Chief Investment Officer, will join the board.
Tor R. Braham served as Managing Director and Global Head of Technology Mergers and Acquisitions for Deutsche Bank Securities from 2004 until 2012.
Eddy W. Hartenstein is a seasoned media executive with a wealth of executive experience from his time serving as CEO of the Tribune Company, Chairman and CEO of DIRECTV, and Publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times Media Group.
Richard S. Hillis a seasoned senior executive and public company board member who has served as Chairman of Tessera Technologies since 2013, and who previously served as Tessera’s interim CEO.
Jeffrey C. Smith is a Managing Member, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Starboard.
Two current independent directors, Lee Scott and Sue James, have opted not to stand for reelection at 2016 annual shareholder meeting.
Sandy Gould, SVP for talent acquisition and development, is leaving Yahoo!. Gould was hired to much acclaim just over three years ago, after a high-profile career at Disney/ABC Television Group, Linden Labs/Second Life and RealNetworks.
Robby Stein, an important product director at Yahoo for most of Marissa Mayer's time as CEO, is leaving the company for a product leadership role at Instagram. At Yahoo, Stein led the New York engineering office, working on mobile and video products, which had been key to Mayer's turnaround pitch.
Hitachi to Strengthen IoT Platforms to Expand the Digital Solutions Business; Appoints Keiji Kojima to Lead the Global Team
Hitachi is strengthening the development and establishment of IoT(Internet of Things) platforms as part of efforts to expand the digital solutions business. Keiji Kojima, 59, who holds concurrent positions as SVP and Executive Officer, and CEO of the Services & Platforms BU, will lead the global team being formed at bases in North America, Europe, Japan, and other regions.
Twitter Appoints Two Directors and Managing Director for China
Twitter appointed Hugh Johnston and Martha Lane Fox to serve as members of the Board. Johnston, has been Vice Chairman and CFO of PepsiCo. Lane Fox has served as the founder and chair of doteveryone.org.uk, an organization advancing the understanding and use of Internet enabled technologies, and in September 2014 was appointed Chancellor of Open University.
Twitter Appoints Kathy Chen as Managing Director for China. Previously, she was General Manager, Strategy Partner Ecosystem Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Product Group at Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research & Development Group.
58.com Appoints Hongyu Xing as CTO
58.com named Hongyu Xing as CTO. Mr. Hongyu Xing has more than 10 years of experience in the Internet industry. Xing joined 58.com in 2015 as a SVP. Prior to joining the Company, he held various positions at Tencent including General Manager in charge of search products, network and media products and WeChat.
Zillow Group Appoints Starbucks Exec as VP of People and Culture 
Dan Spaulding
Zillow Group announced Dan Spaulding has joined the company in the new position of VP of People and Culture. Spaulding was most recently VP, U.S. Stores and Retail Operations HR at Starbucks.
Autohome Announces Chairman Changes
Autohome, the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, appointed Cynthia Whelan as the Chairman replacing Timothy Y. Chen. Chen will continue to serve as a director. Whelan was appointed Group Executive for Telstra International and New Businesses in September 2015.
Match Group Appoints Former Yahoo Exec as GM, Global Advertising and Brand Solutions
Owner of online dating websites Match Group hired Peter Foster as GM, Global Advertising and Brand Solutions. Foster joins from Wrap Media, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer for six months, following four years at Yahoo where he was VP, Solutions Development.
Yelp Names CFO
Charles “Lanny” Baker will join Yelp as CFO. As a former CFO for two digital companies, ZipRealty and Monster Worldwide, and sell-side analyst covering internet and e-commerce, direct marketing and publishing industries, Baker has a successful track record of building and measuring corporate finance strategies rooted in long-term growth objectives.
Mphasis Appoints Head of Digital from Persistent Systems
India based IT services firm Mphasis appointed Yesh Subramanian as SVP and Head of Digital at Mphasis. Yesh joins Mphasis from Persistent Systems, where he was the SVP of Digital Business Solution for Platforms.
Shutterstock Appoints Bloomberg CMO to Board; Names New CMO and Chief People Officer
Shutterstock announced Deirdre M. Bigley, Chief Marketing Officer for Bloomberg, has been appointed to the company's board. The company also named Jeff Weiser as Chief Marketing Officer and Matthew Jagoda as Chief People Officer. Jeff is joining the company from Beachbody, creators of the exercise program P90X and Shakeology. Matthew joins from Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) where he has been head of HR since 2008.
Dennis B. Story to Join Benefitfocus as CFO
Benefitfocus announced that Dennis B. Story will join the company as CFO. Story is currently EVP and CFO of Manhattan Associates. Story has been with Manhattan Associates since March of 2006. Story succeeds Milt Alpern who retired.
Boohoo.com Appoints Entrepreneur and Businesswomen as Non-Executive Director
eCommerce brand Boohoo.com plc named Sara Murray as non-executive director. Sara is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully started, grown and sold three technology companies - Ninah Consulting (sold to ZenithOptimedia, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe in 2003); Inspop (owner of Confused.com, the online insurance marketplace which was sold to Admiral Group in 2002); and Buddi, the leading remote health and location monitoring technology business in 2005.
Uber Hires Top Ford Engineer to Help Build Self-Driving Cars
Sherif Marakby, director of global electronics and engineering at Ford, is joining Uber as VP of global vehicle programs. Marakby will relocate from Detroit to Pittsburgh, where Uber is busy expanding its Advanced Technologies Center.
Lyft Hires Snaptu Founder and Facebook Exec as VP of Growth
Ran Makavy
Ran Makavy, who founded Snaptu, a free mobile app platform in 2007, has joined transportation network company Lyft as VP of Growth. Snaptu served as one of the building blocks for Facebook Lite and later the company’s controversial Internet.org program, was acquired by Facebook in 2011. At Facebook, Makavy started as a growth manager, but eventually joined the team that spearheaded the company’s free-Internet-for-all program that was later renamed Free Basics.
Dropbox Appoints Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs as Board Member
Dropbox added Qualcomm executive chairman Paul Jacobs, 53, to its board. As former CEO of chipmaker Qualcomm, he has deep experience in the mobile sector. He had been the CEO of Qualcomm from 2005 to 2014, and previous to that date served as the Group President of Qualcomm Wireless and Internet Group from 2001. Jacobs started with the company as an engineer in the wireless technology development group in 1990.
Square's Board Member Resigns
Magic Johnson, 56, the retired professional basketball player and NBA legend, has stepped down from the board of Square, to focus on a new development firm he launched to capitalize on President Obama's promise that the federal government will spend trillions on U.S. infrastructure upgrades over the next decade.
Date Range: March 24th - May 13th