London — In a move to make the new-look of AOL more appealing, the web-services company has named Bebo’s European VP and MD "Kate Burns" to the newly created post as head of its European Advertising Sales operations, just before new AOL CEO Tim Armstrong completes his 100-day company review.
According to AllThingsD, which in May reported that Bebo would be transformed in to a new "AOL Ventures" unit, after president Joanna Shields quit. Burns had been the de facto Bebo boss in Shields’ absence, and Bebo does not yet have a replacement lined up.
Burns would be responsible for expanding ad sales on AOL’s owned and operated properties in Europe, improving its Advertising.com third-party network, and delivering unmatched consumer insights.
Burns in her new role, will report directly to AOL’s global advertising and strategy president, Jeff Levick, and will continue to run Bebo’s European operations while she settles into her new role, AOL said on Wednesday.
"Europe is key to accomplishing our mission of being the largest global platform for on-line display advertising. Kate is the right person to create our European management sales team and lead this effort," said Levick. "Kate is a well recognized and highly respected leader in Europe who has the talent, energy and determination to improve our European operations and deliver on this strategy."
Burns was previously Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, of AOL’s social media company, Bebo. No successor to Burns at Bebo was announced.
"AOL holds a solid foundation in Europe, with a strong Web presence in many countries and a leading advertising network, and I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues and with AOL’s partners to build on this foundation," said Burns.
AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, a former Google Inc executive who took over at AOL in March, is conducting a 100-day review of the company’s operations and is expected to present a strategy for the business later this month.
Burns, herself a former Google regional European MD, whom ex-Googler Armstrong appointed from Google in April as head of advertising and strategy.
Burns has more than a decade’s experience launching and leading several businesses to success in Europe. Before joining Bebo in July 2008, Burns, who also had a brief stint as Dailymotion UK MD, where she was responsible for growing its audience, building an advertising sales operation and creating commercial partnerships with brands and ad agencies.
Like Armstrong and Levick, she also has a history at Google, having joined as its first employee outside the United States in 2001 as director of UK, Ireland and Benelux. She has also held key sales positions at Altavista and Doubleclick, as well as Ziff Davis and News International.
Her role will encompass Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Moreover, Armstrong is proposing to simplify AOL’s multiple brands. Although, Wednesday’s press release made no mention by name of its advertising platform, Platform-A.
Brendan Condon, the managing director of Platform-A’s non-U.S. business, will return to his native New York to assume a new role that has yet to be decided.
AOL has advertising operations in nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. AOL’s advertising network had more than 173 million UVs in Europe in May, according to comScore Media Metrix making it the second largest ad network in Europe.