executives

Windows veteran Mike Nash leaving Microsoft

Corporate Vice President Mike Nash, who headed Microsoft's security efforts before spending the past several years in product management and strategy roles in the Windows unit, is leaving Microsoft.

His Windows roots run deep, though, with Nash having been the first product manager on the original Windows NT marketing team. In his long tenure, he also oversaw development of Microsoft.com and led the launch of Windows 2000, before shifting to head the security team.

Nash's departure follows on the heels of the departure of Bill Veghte, another top Windows executive who, like Nash, spent almost 20 years … Read more

AOL: A new buy, a new hire, a CTO hunt

AOL announced Monday that it spent $36.5 million to acquire StudioNow, a start-up that builds technology for online video creation and distribution.

StudioNow be worked into Seed.com, the media clearinghouse that AOL launched late last year--around the same time that it spun off from former parent Time Warner.

Seed.com identifies areas of media coverage that AOL deems to be of interest and then assigns freelance journalists and photographers to the task. The StudioNow acquisition will make it easier for video content to be worked into the mix.

In a somewhat related announcement, AOL has hired former … Read more

Facebook's Dave Morin announces departure

Longtime Facebook employee Dave Morin announced on his personal blog Friday that he's leaving the company and will be starting up a new endeavor with original Napster creator Shawn Fanning.

At Facebook, which Morin joined late in 2006 following a marketing gig at Apple, he served as "senior platform manager." He became one of the company's most high-profile representatives when it launched its developer platform in 2007 and then Facebook Connect in 2008.

His departure is not surprising. While Morin, now 29 and recently engaged to a Googler, had been extremely prominent at Facebook for quite … Read more

Oracle exec's paramour gets revenge with billboards

This is the sort of thing that you'd never expect to happen in real life: the long-term mistress of a married Oracle executive allegedly spent in the neighborhood of $250,000 in billboards in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco to out their affair when she heard that he was patching things up with his wife.

Yikes.

According to widespread reports in the likes of the New York Daily News and the New York Post, Oracle President Charles Phillips had an 8-and-a-half year affair with an actress-writer named YaVaughnie Wilkins.

In 2008, Phillips' wife filed for divorce, though details … Read more

Facebook COO nominated to Disney board

Facebook isn't just for kids anymore, but it looks like Disney's still an admirer: The entertainment conglomerate has nominated Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of the massive social network, to its board of directors.

In a release Wednesday, Disney made the announcement and stated that shareholders will vote on Sandberg's nomination (along with the re-election of its 12 current directors) at the company's annual meeting on March 12 in San Antonio, Texas.

"Sheryl has been at the forefront of a technological revolution that's opened up a world of new possibilities for consumers and which … Read more

Google shifts software value to operations, away from IP

Google CEO Eric Schmidt argues that competition is just a "click away." By opening up Google's access to personal data as well as the software that collects it, Google is adding substance to that claim.

It won't work to write better software than Google, because Google is not a software company. The only way to beat Google is through superior execution; through better operations.

The way to lose to Google? That's easy: try to sell software that Google is shoveling out the door as free (open source) software.

This thought hit me last week as … Read more

AOL names its post-Time Warner board

In preparation for its upcoming spin-off from parent company Time Warner, AOL has named nine members to its board of directors--and from what it sounds like, more additions to the board could be coming.

The current lineup includes former Amazon Chief Information Officer Richard Dalzell, Plainfield Asset Management partner Karen Dykstra, financial services exec William Hambrecht, Paley Center for Media Director Patricia Mitchell, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, former CBS Chief Financial Officer Fredric Reynolds, former Procter & Gamble exec James Stengel, and ex-William Morris Agency CEO James Wiatt.

"AOL is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of … Read more

Facebook's Sandberg: It's OK to turn down that friend request

PALO ALTO, Calif.--"The stream of information coming at you can be overwhelming," Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said when asked in an onstage interview what she thinks of social-networking fatigue. "I think people sometimes feel uncomfortable hitting 'ignore' (on friend requests), but if you don't want to connect to someone, that's why it's there."

Facebook, after all, is on top of the world. It doesn't make much difference to the health of that 300 million-member user base if your "social graph" is one degree smaller.

Sandberg, who … Read more

MySpace names its first chief financial officer

Hot on the heels of its appointment of a chief technology officer last week, News Corp.'s MySpace on Monday announced that Mark Rosenbaum has been hired as its chief financial officer.

Although the appointment marks the first time that the social network has had a CFO, it is Rosenbaum's second stint at News Corp. He headed up financial operations at Gemstar-TV Guide International, when it was owned by the Rupert Murdoch-helmed conglomerate. More recently, Rosenbaum served as a consultant to MGM.

In his new position, Rosenbaum report directly to Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive who became MySpace's CEO in April, … Read more

Yahoo veteran named to MySpace CTO spot

MySpace has appointed Alex Maghen to the role of chief technology officer, the News Corp.-owned social site announced Tuesday. He replaces outgoing CTO Aber Whitcomb, who had been at the company since its inception.

Maghen was already at MySpace, serving in the CTO position of its MySpace Music division, a joint venture with the major record labels. Prior to that, he held CTO roles at Yahoo Entertainment and MTV Networks--the latter of which was also the former employer of current MySpace entertainment execs Courtney Holt and Jason Hirschhorn.

"The next phase of MySpace's evolution will further empower … Read more