Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) poached a top sales executive from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Today, the search company announced the appointment of Lisa Utzschneider as senior vice president of sales, Americas.
Yahoo CEO says Utzscheneider has unique strengths
According to Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Utzschneider has unique strengths in terms of identifying new opportunities to maximize the value of advertising in a rapidly expanding and evolving media landscape.
“Lisa has a demonstrated track record as a leader and as a business builder, focused on creating and expanding sales relationships as well as scaling technological innovation,” added Mayer.
Utzschneider will be responsible for the advertising business of the search company across the Americas. She will report directly to Mayer. All of the sales teams across North and South America will report to Utzschneider.
Commenting on her appointment, Utzschneider said, “I am thrilled to join Yahoo and to build on the proven assets the company has developed across the advertising space. I look forward to working with this team and with Yahoo’s technology platforms to deliver value to advertisers and to delight consumers with unique and personalized ads.”
Before joining Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Utzschneider recently served as vice president of global advertising sales, Media Group at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). She led the product development and sales strategies for advertising solutions across the portfolio of the e-commerce giant.
Prior to her career at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZON), she worked at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). She spearheaded various advertising initiatives in product development, sales strategy and online industry standards during her ten years tenure at the software giant.
Other executive appointments
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) also appointed Ned Brody to assume the newly position of senior vice president, advertising technology and strategy. He will focus on the deployment of advertising technologies and go to market strategies across the company’s ad portfolio.
Early this month, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) hired Kevin Gentzel, the former chief revenue officer at Washington Post to lead its sales department.
Investors are bullish on Yahoo
Meanwhile, several investors including Jeff Smith of Starboard Value and John Burbank of Passport Capital are bullish on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). Burbank said he is long on Yahoo and he believed that the shares of the company were undervalued.
