San Francisco — Moving rapidly to fill the vacant post, just five days later, search engine titan Google Inc. on Tuesday announced the appointment of “Dennis Woodside,” its top advertising executive from UK to replace head of American advertising sales and operations Tim Armstrong, who is leaving the Mountain View, Calif.-based company after 8 1/2 years to become chief executive of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL family of Web sites.
Google said Dennis Woodside 40, who joined the Internet firm in 2003, the top salesman in charge of the United Kingdom, which is Google’s second-biggest market, would assume Armstrong’s responsibilities managing advertising sales in North America and Latin America — the two most important sales territory that generates most of the company’s revenue.
Google has been hastily scrambling to fill Armstrong’s post, announced Woodside’s promotion Tuesday, less than a week after his departure to AOL’s top job to tackle a new challenge at the one-time Internet star that has struggled to regain its luster for several years.
An admired executive, Armstrong was honored for his straight talk and dependable follow through. His surprise departure was seen as a potential blow to Google’s sales operations, a former executive said.
Armstrong is considered to be an outstanding leader to follow, having helped build Google into an advertising powerhouse during his tenure at the company’s sales operations in North America and South America.
Woodside, was a logical candidate to succeed Armstrong because he has been steering Google’s ad operations in the United Kingdom — the country that produces the second-most ad revenue behind the United States.
Woodside has been managing Google’s direct sales operations in the U.K., Benelux region and formed the company’s inside sales group in Dublin, Ireland. The company acknowledges his efforts in building up its presence in markets such as Central Europe and the Middle East, and having started advertising sales operations in Europe.
He was most recently Google’s Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux regions, building “positive” relationships with partners such as Amazon.com, Marks & Spencer and Omnicom, Google SVP of Global Sales and Business Development Omid Kordestani said in a statement.
“We believe it is now time not just to roll-out globally the best practices from the different regional sales teams — the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific — but also to tailor our business strategies more closely to the different situations we face in different countries,” said Kordestani.
However, Woodside was named vice president, Americas operations, and was not given Armstrong’s titles of president and senior vice president, though he will likely gain the titles if he performs in his new role, a source said.
Armstrong himself joined in the role as a vice president, and Google is known for requiring employees to prove themselves.
“Ever since I met Dennis in 2003, I have been impressed by his combination of entrepreneurial-ism and operational excellence,” Kordestani wrote.
Although Armstrong had become a distinguished public figure of Google, and his departure was looked upon as a setback. However, Kordestani wrote in his memo that, “While we are all sorry to see Tim move on, change always brings new opportunities.”
Woodside started with Google five-and-a-half years ago from McKinsey and Company, where he was an associate partner leading operational and strategy projects for multinational clients in the technology and media industries.
Woodside’s task as Armstrong’s successor is to continue working with some of the largest corporations and advertising agencies, in order to expand Google’s industry presence.
It also comes at a time when Google, which has come to dominate the market for text-based, online search advertisements, is in the midst of an effort to expand into graphical, display advertising.
Woodside holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial relations from Cornell University and a J. D. from Stanford, where he was associate editor of the Stanford Law Review. He also served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
Google shares climbed up to $15.65, or nearly 5 percent, to finish Tuesday at $335.34.