London — Former Bebo architect Joanna Shields, the high-profile new media topper who promoted the success of teen-friendly social networking site, Bebo, has decided to part ways as prexy of AOL’s People Networks division, making a U-turn from New York to London to settle with her family and pursue entrepreneurial interests.
According to an internal memo to staff, AOL’s new global chief executive Tim Armstrong and picked up by Kara Swisher, wrote: “Joanna Shields has decided to exit from her role as president of People Networks/EVP of AOL and return to London to spend more time with her family and allowing Shields to follow her specialist startup executive skills — perhaps hinting that her days at AOL were always bound to be limited.”
Joanna Shields is leaving her role as president of AOL’s People Networks.
“At her core, Joanna is a start-up executive, having taken numerous companies through the process of rapid growth and acquisition.”
“Following the company’s acquisition of Bebo last year, where Joanna served as chief executive, she moved to New York to help AOL unlock the value of our social assets and re-establish AOL as a leader and innovator in the area of social networking and communications — two areas this company pioneered.
Armstrong praised Shields for the numerous innovations in AOL’s social networking tools such as AIM and ICQ under her watch and the launch of Socialthing — which provides social media on various AOL platforms — in addition to continued upgrades to Bebo.
Armstrong said Shields has been with AOL for 14 months and will remain on board as an advisor to AOL on its acquisitions and new ventures. Shields is a popular and powerful executive who made Bebo saleable, and pushed through that eye-watering deal while the market was still high on social networking Kool Aid — though Swisher speculates that Shields faced a lot of criticism internally after the merger for that price tag.
In fact, the criticism went so far that when AOL acquired Bebo for $850 million last year, some commentators hinted the outfit’s motivation was as much to do with getting Shields on the pay roll as it was in buying Bebo per se.
Shields, a former Google employee like Tim Armstrong, was CEO of Bebo when AOL purchased the website for $850 million in March 2008. Following the acquisition, she moved to AOL’s HQ in New York and in her position as head of AOL’s People Networks division, was given the task of establishing the company as a leading innovator in the social networking arena.
Nicknamed “Hurricane Joanna” Shields created original content for Bebo with teen soaps “lonelygirl15” and “Kate Modern,” backed by lucrative blue chip sponsorship from the likes of Procter & Gamble, MSN, Orange Mobile, Paramount and Disney.
“Kate Modern” went to TV following its online bow.
Of late in the mercurial empire of teen media, Bebo has lost some of its mojo to more fashionable social networking services like Twitter.
Armstrong commending Shields’ contribution to the company, stated: “I’m happy to say that Joanna will continue to serve as an advisor to the company working with our acquisitions and new ventures, so while we would not be seeing her on a daily basis, she will remain an important member of the AOL family.”
At Bebo, Shields was honored for her sales skills and deal-making prowess.
Armstrong replaced Randy Falco as AOL CEO in March 2009 and is said to favour a more centralised company structure. Last month, AOL owners Time Warner announced that it would spin off its AOL assets into a new company, a move that could possible unstitch the $147 billion merger of the two firms in 2001. A final decision on the spin-off is expected on Thursday May 28.