Aon CEO Ryan retiring
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CHICAGO Insurance giant Aon Corporation is looking for a new chief executive officer to succeed Patrick Ryan, who is retiring. The 67-year-old Ryan intends to stay on as CEO until his successor is named and
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Chad Gifford, one of Boston's most visible business leaders, said yesterday he would retire as chairman of Bank of America Corp. , just one year after selling the region's largest bank to executives in North Carolina.
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(InfoWorld) - AOL on Monday confirmed to its employees the rumored departure of several senior executives and announced a reshuffling of top-tier management duties in a memo penned by Randy Falco,Â the new chief executive officer. Five high-level executives are leaving, all of whom reported directly to Jonathan Miller, the former CEO whoÂ was abruptly fired in mid-NovemberÂ to the surprise of many. Four of them figured prominently in Miller's strategy,Â outlined in September, to complete AOL's radical transformation from a provider of dial-up Internet access that charged for most of its content and services to an open and free Web portal focused on online advertising revenue. Miller had been praised for early success in transitioning the company to an ad-driven model, and some AOL observers are concerned that the shakeup could destroy the momentum he built up. In particular, some view with skepticism that Miller has been replaced by a TV industry veteran and not an Internet specialist. Falco was president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group. In Monday's memo, obtained by IDG News Service, Falco praised Miller's plan but said it needed to be "tighter, clearer and better focused on operations" with a greater focus on execution and with more accountability "built into the organization." "In such crucial areas as our speed to market and innovating new products, we have much work ahead of us," Falco wrote. Heading out the door are Jim Bankoff, executive vice president of consumer and publisher services, and Joe Redling, president of AOL Mobile, customer management and paid services, and CEO of AOL International. Joining them will be John McKinley,Â whom AOL had already acknowledged was leaving. Randy Boe, executive vice president for consumer advocacy and privacy, has also resigned, as well as John Buckley, executive vice president of corporate communications. Falco's memo doesn't say when these men will leave. All decided to resign on their own accord, sources said. "AOL has just gone through elements of a significant reorganization, and I know that the departure of well-respected colleagues and friends is not easy for anyone here," Falco wrote. Eight executives will report directly to Falco, including Ted Leonsis, AOL vice chairman; Ron Grant, president and chief operating officer; and Steve Swad, chief financial officer. Grant, a former senior VP of operations at parent company Time Warner Inc. who arrived after Miller's departure, will oversee AOL's business units: products, programming, platforms, AOL media networks, paid services, and international. The new CTO, Balan Nair, will also report to him, "because smoothly integrating our technology resources into the business units has been such a priority," Falco wrote. Kevin Conroy, who reported directly to Miller, will be in charge of products, including AOL Mail, the AOL PC software, portals, video and video search, storage, safety and security products, AIM and mobile products. Bill Wilson will head AOL's programming, an area Bankoff ran, while Falco is still looking for someone to oversee AOL's platforms, including the search engines, e-commerce offerings and online mapping site MapQuest. Mike Kelly, who also reported directly to Miller, will continue to head AOL Media Networks, which includes the key ad sales operation. Kim Partoll, who reported to the departing Redling, will continue in her role managing AOL's paid services. Another area Redling managed, international, still lacks a chief.
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Google Inc. said Tuesday that its chief financial officer will retire by the end of the year, creating the highest-ranking job opening at the Internet search leader since it went public three years ago.
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(InfoWorld) - Reactions to Time Warner Inc.'s decision to sack AOL LLC's chief executive officer (CEO) range from lukewarm endorsement to strident disapproval, as the industry tries to make sense of a move many observers find perplexing. Jonathan Miller, who guided AOL through a complicated transformation from an Internet has-been to a credible player, got his walking papers last Wednesday. Randy Falco, a TV industry veteran who was president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group, will take over as AOL's chairman and CEO. "It's a strange move, because AOL is on the way up. Miller was responsible for turning around the ship successfully, so it's not clear to me why they're replacing him," says industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. Miller, named chairman and CEO in August 2002, had the difficult task of changing AOL's business model from one focused on dial-up Internet access subscriptions to one centered on online advertising. This involved tearing down AOL's "walled garden" and making freely available on the Web the content and services it previously reserved for paying members via its proprietary software. This leap of faith assumes AOL will make up and surpass with online advertising the revenue it will give up by abandoning its Internet access business. Early indications suggest the plan is working. Although in Time Warner's third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, AOL's revenue declined 3 percent, due to the shrinking access business, online advertising revenue increased 46 percent, faster than the industry average, which hovers between 33 percent and 37 percent. This prompted Time Warner officials and financial analysts to shower Miller and other AOL top leaders with praise. Privately, however, the recovery signs may have come too late and been underwhelming for Time Warner. At a time when an Internet startup like YouTube Inc. gets bought for $1.65 billion, Time Warner may have astronomical expectations for AOL that it didn't see Miller meeting. "Miller's accomplishment is that he transitioned AOL from a fee model to a free model, which gives AOL a future. The problem is that AOL remains a property in trouble, one that isn't performing particularly well, certainly behind Google and Yahoo. That has been the big disappointment. Today, if you have a [company with a] Web model, you're looking for a very rich return on investment," says industry analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group. But as it searches for bigger online ad growth with an Internet industry outsider as CEO, Time Warner risks turning AOL's recovery into a relapse. "Falco doesn't really know the business. That's going to be the problem: he's going to be learning on the job. It may not be a huge problem if he's packaging the company up for sale, but if he's going to try to run it, it's probably going to be a [long] learning experience," Enderle says. As learning goes, Miller is also credited with synchronizing AOL to varying degrees with key trends driving the rebirth of the Web economy, such as blogging, Internet search, digital music, online video and open-development platforms. Lately, he had been spurring AOL product teams to shift their philosophy from making simple yet integrated products and services to developing outstanding ones. "The emphasis today is to make stuff great," Miller said at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco a week before he was dismissed. He added then that this focus is key if AOL wants to increase traffic to its Web sites, which in turn fuels its online ad business. Unlike his successor, Miller was no stranger to the Internet business when he joined AOL. He had been president and CEO of USA Interactive's USA Information and Services (USAIS), which included at the time businesses like Ticketmaster.com, Citysearch, Match.com, USA Electronic Commerce Solutions and Expedia.com. A Time Warner spokesman disputed claims that Falco is an Internet newbie, saying that at NBC he oversaw the launch of several Web sites, including one tied to the network's Olympic Games coverage , and of online initiatives, such as the joint portal for U.S. Hispanics that Yahoo and NBC's Telemundo network announced in May. Ultimately, however, Falco comes on board because of his ad sales and traditional media background. "His TV experience and advertising connections really dovetail perfectly with AOL's focus on video and advertising going forward," the spokesman said. "Randy Falco is the right person to take AOL to the next level." Falco will provide more details about what that "next level" goal is when he takes over at a yet undetermined date, according to the spokesman. Miller remains at AOL for now but will leave Time Warner at a date that also has yet to be determined, the spokesman said. At least one high-profile AOL official has decided to jump ship rather than work under Falco. Jason Calacanis, who sold his very successful Weblogs Inc. company to AOL last October and continued to run it as a stand-alone subsidiary, resigned on Friday, after writing on his blog about his disappointment over Miller's removal. Of course, there are precedents among Internet companies appointing chief executives from traditional media companies, like Terry Semel, who became Yahoo's CEO in 2001 after 24 years with Warner Bros., says James C. Goss, a media and entertainment financial analyst at Barrington Research. Whatever Falco does, it's clear his key mandate will be to leverage his experience in the TV industry to accelerate AOL's ad sales business. If he fails at that, his appointment will be seen as a major mistake. "Obviously, AOL has changed its stripes and this just seems like a reaction to the shift in its business, to have somebody as CEO who has a lot of experience in the media side and, from an organizational standpoint, with a large operation of that nature," Goss says. "This is reflective of the dramatic business model change and of the aspirations" that come with it. Be that as it may, some Internet industry observers remain befuddled. "From the outside, it doesn't seem to make any sense," Sterling says. Â ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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The retailer's CEO steps down amid a shakeup in operations.
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WebMethods Inc. said yesterday that its chief financial officer plans to step down at the end of December, adding to the list of leaders who have resigned from the Fairfax software company in the past two years.
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WellPoint Inc.  CEO Larry Glasscock will retire from the health insurer on June 1, but will continue as board chairman, the company said on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - The executive in charge of leading Microsoft's battle against search giant Google is leaving the company to form his own venture, according to published reports. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Chris Payne, corporate vice president of Windows Live search, plans to leave his job and form a company in Seattle. According to the report, his departure is part of a set of changes in the organization since Microsoft appointed former Ask.com executive Steve Berkowitz last year as senior vice president to lead its online group. Microsoft has declined to comment on reports of Payne's leaving, and his biography remained on Microsoft's Web site Thursday. According to the bio, Payne is in charge of "delivering the best search experience for customers and helping them find the information that is important to them," as well as overseeing Windows Live Shopping. Published reports did not make it clear if Payne plans to leave Microsoft for his own reasons or if the company is letting him go. However, Microsoft's search and online business has not been faring well against Google since Microsoft unveiled a plan in November 2005 to rename its search engine Windows Live Search and develop other Web-based services under that moniker in an attempt to take more of the online advertising market. The company at the time also announced a small-business hosted package called Office Live. Just last week in a conference call, financial analysts from UBS Investment Research saidÂ Microsoft's search business is "massively underperforming"Â against Google in both the incidence of search queries and in advertising revenue. They also predicted that the gap between the two companies in this market would not be closing anytime soon unless Microsoft takes drastic measures to ramp up its search strategy by striking deals with enterprise partners and finding legal ways to link its online offerings to its popular enterprise software products. Revenue from Microsoft's online properties also remained relatively flat over the last fiscal year despite the company's increased investment to bolster this part of its business. Before taking over Microsoft's Windows Live Search team, Payne was vice president of MSN.com, where he managed MSN Search, the MSN.com home page, MSN Autos, MSN Entertainment, MSNBC, Slate, and the MSN Channels properties.
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George Reyes will be one of only a few of the Internet search giantâs top executives to have left since its founding in 1998.
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Internet visionary Vint Cerf will retire after years of guiding Internet oversight policies.
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On Monday, Office Depot Chairman and CEO Bruce Nelson quit âby mutual agreement.â The decision has come after his four years being a chairman.
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Four top executives at AOL abruptly announced their intentions to leave the company yesterday, just days before new chief executive Randy Falco is expected to announce a major restructuring at the top.
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Microsoft's Business Division President will step down, and the former head of the company that created Flash will take his spot.
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ComcastÂs two longtime chief financial officers will retire next year and will be succeeded by an executive from a private equity firm.
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(InfoWorld) - A month afterÂ Jonathan Miller was fired unexpectedlyÂ as AOL chief executive, three of the senior executives who reported directly to him and who oversee key areas of AOL's business are on their way out,Â sources say. Jim Bankoff, executive vice president of consumer and publisher services, and Joe Redling, president of AOL Mobile, customer management and paid services, and chairman and CEO of AOL International, will leave the company soon, along with John Buckley, executive vice president of corporate communications. All three are still with the company but have set the process in motion to pack their bags and move on, taking advantage of a so-called "change of control" clause in their contracts, sources said. Joining them will be John McKinley, who, as had been confirmed previously, is leaving at the end of the year after a temporary stint as chief technology officer. Like Miller's dismissal, the departures of Bankoff and Redling will no doubt send shockwaves through the management ranks at AOL. Both were top generals for Miller, who chose them to figure prominently in the restructuring plan he drafted and began to implement in September. "Jim will have the dedicated distribution, adoption and technology resources to be able to manage his portfolio of programming initiatives, from instant messaging to social networking sites such as AIM Pages," Miller wrote of Bankoff in a memo in September in which he outlined the plan. In that document, Miller also assigned Bankoff the task of developing a new publishing and content-management system, calling the project "a priority for the company that Jim will spearhead." Meanwhile, Miller called Redling "one of AOL's most capable executives" and described Redling's main business responsibilities -- mobile, customer relationships and international -- as "three key initiatives that directly address our future." Redling was supposed to boost AOL's advertising business abroad, while designing a new international structure. In mobile, Redling was entrusted with developing an area in which Miller said AOL had never placed enough investment or focus. The departures of Redling and Bankoff will likely make industry observers wonder if AOL runs the risk of derailing, at a time when it is undergoing a critical structural and strategic overhauling. Before his sudden ouster, Miller had garnered general praise from pundits for steering AOL through a radical transformation, from a company focused on dial-up Internet access subscription fees to one focused on online advertising. Miller's replacement, Randy Falco, is a TV industry veteran who was president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group and doesn't come from the Internet field. Bankoff has been with AOL since 1995, and has held a variety of positions, including president of AOL Web Properties and president of AOL eCommerce. Redling came to AOL in 1999 as senior vice president of marketing for the AOL service and was later promoted to marketing president. An official announcement from AOL about the impending departures of these executives and their replacements is likely to come next week, sources said. AOL declined to comment.
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan has decided to resign, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday.