Cesar Mascaraque to head up European operations…
“Cesar Mascaraque, an executive at Google, has left the company to work for Ask.com as European managing director…”
London — Ask.com has appointed Google’s “Cesar Mascaraque” as its new managing director in Europe, beginning February 4, 2008.
At Google, Mascaraque was head of strategic partnerships and business development for Southern Europe. He will be based with Ask.com in London and will oversee operations throughout Europe.
Reasoning out, Mascaraque said in a statement that “Ask.com is the fastest growing search engine” and that it is “an exciting time to join”.
“I have watched the brand set itself apart from competitors by pioneering new products and offering innovative ways of bringing search to users,” he said. “I look forward to working with the international teams to build on this already successful model.”
Mascaraque will run European operations for Ask.com, having previously held the position of head of strategic partnerships and business development for southern Europe at Google.
Before his time at Google, Mascaraque, a Spanish national, co-founded and acted as director of Finexia.com, a UK-based online asset finance platform.
Jim Safka, chief executive officer, Ask.com, said: “With his extensive online expertise and tremendous business acumen, he will be a great leader for Ask.com’s European operations.”
Mascaraque replaces Myles Runham, who leaves after six years with the company he joined in 2001.
Runham was vice president of European operations and planning before being promoted to general manager for Europe in 2006.
Aside from Mascaraque’s reasoning, it is great to see Ask continually stepping forward to challenge Google — competition is good, and if anyone can give Google a run for their money, Ask.com can.
Although in reality, over the last two months at least, Ask has been losing ground according to Hitwise.
“In fact, Google is the only one that consistently gains ground from month to month.”