Dive Brief:
- AOL’s president, Bob Lord, is leaving the company early next year with the goal of running a public company.
- Although Lord was being groomed to become the CEO of AOL, Verizon’s purchase of AOL made his goal unattainable when AOL became a division within the larger telecom firm.
- Lord’s term included several marketing technology (martech) acquisitions as well as a deal for Microsoft’s ad business.
Dive Insight:
Speaking on his goal to run a public company, Lord told the Wall Street Journal, “That’s my sweet spot. That’s what I really want to do. I haven’t gone out in the market and looked yet. Right now, I’m committed to making sure things are tied up at AOL.”
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong had been grooming Lord to become the next leader of the company, but when Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion this May the new structure no longer fit Lord’s larger goal of running a public company. Armstrong agreed to stay aboard for several more years at the time of the acquisition.
The former ad executive came to AOL two years ago as the head of AOL Networks, and most recently before that served as chief executive at Publicis Groupe's Razorfish. Lord is credited for helping AOL pivot toward a more ad tech-focused approach.
Some of the martech acquisitions Lord made during his tenure include Adap.tv , a video ad-buying platform; attribution vendor Convertro; and mobile ad network Millennial Media.
According to Armstrong Lord will stay with AOL through the end of the year and there are no current plans to name a successor.
