Joanna Shields was an EVP and the President of People Networks at AOL.  She came to the company through AOL’s acquisition of Bebo.  Shields plans to move back to London and pursue other entrepreneurial interests.  Shields was President of Bebo at the time of the acquisition.

This announcement comes at a time where AOL is preparing to spin off from Time Warner as an independent, public company.  When Bebo was acquired for $850 million, they were a much smaller social network than MySpace and Facebook.  MySpace was acquired for $580 million back in July 2005 and Facebook is planning for an IPO several years down the road.

Below is the memo that Joanna left to her team at AOL: