Now that Terry Semel stepped down from the CEO position and Jerry Yang stepped in, Yahoo! is undergoing some major management changes. One of the executives is leaving the company, but some of them are moving up within the company.
David Karnstedt is moving up to run the Head of North American Sales from his former position, Senior VP of Yahoo! Search sales. Wenda Harris Millard is leaving Yahoo! to pursue a career as the President of Media at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. An interesting fact is that Millard is a founder of DoubleClick, an advertising company that was acquired by Google for $3.1 billion.
“Integrating our world-class search and display sales teams under David’s leadership will allow us to better serve all of our advertisers’ marketing objectives ranging from brand awareness to direct response,” stated Sue Decker, the newly appointed President of Yahoo! “This is one of many important steps we’re taking to re-invigorate our display business, further build on our industry-leading position in advertising, and drive thought-leadership in the online advertising marketplace.”
Karnstedt was hired into the Yahoo! Search Marketing in 2001 when the company acquired Overture. Karnstedt moving into this position symbolizes Yahoo!’s hunger to compete against Google AdWords.
“The future of advertising isn’t about choosing between search and display, but about leveraging the breadth of advertising products to more effectively reach your customers with the right message, in the right context, at the right time, and on the right platform,” added Gregory Coleman, Yahoo!’s EVP of Global Sales. “David Karnstedt has done great things for Yahoo!’s Search Sales business, and it’s his leadership skills, business acumen and keen understanding of the new media landscape that make him the perfect person to help shape the future of Yahoo!’s advertising sales business.”
