Following the departure of Kevin Conroy from AOL, the product group is being reorganized. Ted Cahall is being named the new president of the product group. Cahall will be in charge of Mail, Truveo, Mobile, Toolbar, Safety & Security, Parental Controls, the AOL Client, Search, MapQuest, Global Publishing Technology and Relegence. This is a step up for Cahall, who previously was EVP of Platforms and Technologies (which included revenue-producing business units such as search, MapQuest, the commerce and marketplace channels, and Relegence as well as publishing technology to other divisions). He is now combining his previous responsibilities with oversight of the product group.
Some other shuffling is also going on. AOL Video, AOL Radio, Winamp and other properties are now under Bill Wilson’s programming group, and Userplane is now under Joanna Shields’ People Networks unit (Bebo). This reorg was a long time coming.
Below is the memo from AOL CEO Randy Falco to employees.
From: Randy Falco
To: Intl Employees; US Employees
Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 11:18:13 AM
Subject: Organizational AnnouncementDear AOL colleague,
I’m pleased to announce that Ted Cahall has agreed to take on an expanded role as President of Products & Technologies, assuming responsibilities for several key AOL products. Ted will also serve in a new leadership role on the Dulles campus as General Manager of AOL Dulles.
As head of Products & Technologies, Ted will oversee Mail, Truveo, Mobile, Toolbar, Safety & Security and Parental Controls as well as the AOL Client. He will continue to manage the Technologies division as well as Search, MapQuest, Global Publishing Technology and Relegence. Ted has proven to be an astute business executive, a talented leader and an outstanding technologist (he’s the inventor of DynaPub, which revolutionized how we publish to the Web), and I’m confident he’ll continue to drive innovation and growth for these important AOL products.
As GM of AOL Dulles, Ted will serve as the on-site executive leader of the campus, a role top executives play at our other major hub locations. This is both a reflection of Ted’s leadership skills and his strong presence in Dulles, as well as the vital role Dulles continues to play in the success of AOL.
At the same time, we’re taking the opportunity to more closely align other aspects of our business with our Web strategy. AOL Video, AOL Radio, Winamp, SHOUTcast, Marketing, Registration, Affinity and Widgets will move under Bill Wilson in the Programming group, as will AOL’s commerce and marketplace channels, which had been part of Ted’s organization. Ted did an outstanding job of rebuilding our commerce and marketplace channels, making them more useful, more engaging, more profitable and driving up their comScore rankings. By integrating them into Programming, we have the opportunity to build on this success.
In addition, Userplane applications will move into the People Networks business unit under Joanna Shields, adding to its suite of communications tools. We’re continuing to work through any remaining details and will communicate directly with those teams involved in the weeks ahead.
With these changes, I’m confident we’ll continue to drive innovation and growth around all our products.
In the meantime, please join me in congratulating Ted on his expanded role.
Randy