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Uber executive reshuffling drops its COO and CMO
In an email that went out to employees on Friday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that because of progress made over the last two years, he now has more time to oversee day-to-day operations. Post-IPO, that will mean some reassigning of roles, and as a part of that, Chief Operating Officer Barney Harford and Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Messina are both stepping down. Neither will be replaced directly, instead the heads of Uber's core businesses (Rides and Eats) will report directly to the CEO, while the marketing, communications and policy departments will be combined into one, all under former VP of communications and public policy Jill Hazelbaker. What impact will this have on you pressing a button and getting something delivered or hopping into a stranger's car for a ride? We don't know yet, but now that the company is public at least a few things are going to change.
Twitter COO Adam Bain steps down
This afternoon Twitter's Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain announced in a series of tweets that he is leaving the company after six years "and a once-in-a-lifetime run." Listed second under CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter's management page, Bain was in charge of building the company's advertising business. His departure comes after weeks of turmoil for the company, including rumors of a sale and hundreds of layoffs. A Bloomberg report in October signaled an internal struggle with CFO Anthony Noto taking more control, and he will replace Bain in the COO position.
Theranos loses its COO as it seeks to improve quality
What can Theranos do to restore confidence in its company and the suddenly-in-doubt finger prick blood tests it hoped would revolutionize the industry? It's hard to say, but tonight it's trying to turn things around by announcing some executive reshuffling. COO and president Sunny Balwani (who, along with CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes is reportedly facing a ban from the blood testing industry) will retire.
Apple names Jeff Williams as its first COO since Tim Cook
Apple has just named its first Chief Operating Officer since Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011. Longtime Apple veteran Jeff Williams (who joined the company in 1998) is now COO, reporting directly to Cook. Additionally, senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller has seen his duties expand, as well -- he's now the leader of the App Store, a responsibility that was previously under the purview of Eddy Cue.
HTC senior execs resign ahead of smart wearable launch
HTC may be back on its road to recovery thanks to its One (M8) flagship phone, but it's now facing yet another managerial change. According to Bloomberg's Tim Culpan, the phone maker's marketing chief Ben Ho has just resigned, making it a rather short stint since he joined a little over a year and a half ago. Our own sources implied that this had been expected for a while, and that the $1 billion "Here's To Change" marketing campaign was the main culprit, as it failed to get its money's worth in return (despite chairwoman Cher Wang being a big fan of the hipster trolls featured in the ads). While Ho has already been relieved of CMO duties, he will remain at HTC until end of this year.
Under Lenovo, Motorola picks a new but familiar leader
Motorola may have had to shuffle executives following Lenovo's acquisition plans, but the phone maker isn't straying far from its previous course. It just named company veteran Rick Osterloh as its President and COO, effective immediately. He'll provide the "business continuity" that Motorola needs right now, according to outgoing leader Jonathan Rosenberg. Recent history suggests as much. While many focused on ex-CEO Dennis Woodside as the face of the Google-era Motorola, Osterloh led product development during that period -- he can take at least some credit for attention-getting projects like the Moto X and Moto 360. He's also responsible for getting the ball rolling on Android at the company, having created the team that launched early efforts like the CLIQ and Droid.
HTC's COO Matthew Costello joins revolving door of departing execs
One of HTC's top execs, Chief Operating Officer Matthew Costello, will depart after three years on the job, according to a report from Bloomberg. He'll join recent departees like Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik and others in leaving the company, which has seen unprecedented turnover of late amid its falling fortunes. His position will be filled for now by engineering president Fred Liu, who told employees via email that Costello would move to Europe and stay on as an executive adviser. Ironically, the latest departure comes in the wake of very good news for HTC, which just reported $970 million in May revenue -- nearly double what it took in last month and just shy of May 2012 figures. That can likely be chalked up to sales of the One, which is now being churned out at full speed (and soon in a stock Android version) but whether the fortunes of HTC's star handset can halt the brain-drain remains to be seen.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, live at D11
Sheryl Sandberg has served as the chief operating officer of the world's most popular social network since 2008, and today she's taking the stage at D11 here in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She's kicking off a day of high-profile interviews just hours after Apple CEO Tim Cook got things started last night, and we're expecting her to be grilled on all manners of things -- the company's stock price, the future of mobile advertising, the success (or failure) of Facebook Home, international growth and how many Likes this here liveblog will receive. Join us after the break for the blow-by-blow, won't you?
Samsung courts nepotism again, appoints chief's son Jay Y. Lee to vice chairman
Though Samsung is ostensibly a public company, it has been run more like a fiefdom in terms of leadership, having been founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull who passed the reins on to current chairman Lee Kun-hee 25 years ago last week. Now, his 44-year-old son, Jay Y. Lee, has been appointed vice chairman, paving the way for another likely family succession to the top of the $195 billion Korean electronics giant. The scion is already the chief operating officer and president of Samsung and the new role will "build on his existing responsibilities and (let him) take a broader role in managing Samsung Electronics' business," according to the company. That may fly in the face of the Korea's political climate right now, according to Reuters, where the country's chaebol's are under pressure to reform amid an ever-widening wealth gap. Though Lee is reported to be lacking in the kind of business star-power that his father exudes, nowadays the job might require more of a keen legal mind than anything else.
Yahoo hires Google exec Henrique de Castro as COO
Sure, Yahoo may already have former Google executive Marissa Mayer at the helm, but the company's now hired Mountain View veteran Henrique de Castro to become its COO. Transitioning from his current role as Google's worldwide Partner Business Solutions group VP, de Castro will take charge of "strategic and operational management of Yahoo's sales, operations, media and business development worldwide." In other words, he'll wield his advertising and sales expertise to help guide the firm forward. At the latest, January 22, 2013 will be de Castro's first day on the job, if he can't tie up loose ends with Page and Co. sooner.
Jolla's Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish
Following big news from Jolla almost two weeks ago, it's reluctant to go quiet, instead taking to Twitter to announce that Jussi Hurmola is no longer its CEO. This isn't a story of scandal or corporate dissent, but merely a restructuring to allow Hurmola to focus on Sailfish, the MeeGo-based OS currently in development. It's no great surprise that Marc Dillon is stepping up to be the new big cheese -- he's another of the company's founders and was acting COO prior to the shuffle. Sailfish is due to be demoed for the first time in a little over a month, where we imagine Hurmola will be eager to flaunt its progress now that he's managed to palm off all that paperwork.
Zynga COO John Schappert resigns
Zynga's chief operations officer John Schappert has resigned, according to Fortune. This announcement comes just barely one week after Schappert's responsibilities at the developer were revised to no longer include the oversight of game development. Schappert's departure is effective immediately."John has made significant contributions to the games industry throughout his career and we appreciate all that he has done for Zynga," CEO Mark Pincus told Fortune. "John leaves as a friend of the company and we wish him all the best."Prior to working at Zynga, Schappert served as Corporate Vice President of Live at Microsoft, as well as COO of Electronic Arts -- a company that happens to be suing Zynga as we speak.
LucasArts President Paul Meegan leaves the company
LucasArts President Paul Meegan has decide to vacate his position at the House that Star Wars Built. COO Mich Chau says that the company wishes Meegan "the best in his future endeavors," and "will be re-evaluating LucasArts' leadership needs" in the future. This is the second big exit from LucasArts this summer: Creative Lead Clint Hocking also left the studio just recently. Meegan replaced Darrell Rodriguez, who, like Meegan, left the company after two years as president.Meegan's LinkedIn page now lists him as a "CEO/President, Entrepreneur," and a "Change Agent," apparently looking for a new company. Considering Meegan helped found Epic Games China and has overseen studios at Ubisoft and Jaleco in the past, we're sure he'll land on his feet.
HP names Bill Veghte new COO, hands over the keys to HP Software
After successfully piloting HP's software division and, presumably, performing well as the company's chief strategy officer, Bill Veghte is getting a promotion. Effective immediately he'll be taking over as COO of the struggling computer manufacturer and finally handing over the keys to HP Software. As Veghte is forced to give up his executive vice president's position, George Kadifa will be stepping it to take up the charge of leading the non hardware-based part of the business. The move will also mean that Veghte will be working even more closely with CEO Whitman, who expressed confidence in Veghte. The shakeup comes shortly on the heels of a particularly tough financial quarter and the announcement of 27,000 layoffs. Check out the complete PR after the break.
RIM continues the executive shuffle with new COO and CMO
Changes are afoot at Research in Motion. The Canadian smartphone maker today announced the addition of two new names to top executive slots. Former Sony Mobile Communications executive VP Kristian Tear will be taking on the role of the company's chief operating officer. RIM's new chief marketing officer Frank Boulben, meanwhile, comes over from Lightsquared, after having worked for the likes of Vodafone, Vivendi and Orange. The news comes on the heels of word that new CEO Thorsten Heins has been "clearing house" at the ailing phone company.
GamersFirst sees a management shakeup
GamersFirst is in the minds of gamers for its successful relaunch of APB: Reloaded, which went from a lightning-fast shutdown to a successful free-to-play title. The company is also developing new games based on original IPs for future release. But there's some rumbling going on behind the scenes at the company, as the company's parent corporation, K2 Network, saw the resignation of its CEO, Joshua Hong. Bjorn Book-Larsson, former COO and CTO, has been promoted to the CEO position, with Hong's future uncertain. The official statements claim that the transition of power was amicable and pre-arranged, but it also comes on the heels of worldwide layoffs from K2 and rumors of a power struggle behind the scenes. Rahul Sandil, the company's public relations chief, claimed that there was no truth to these rumors and that the plan was to move forward from simple localizations of titles developed in foreign markets. Sandil went on to confirm that APB: Reloaded continues to be a large-scale success for the company and that further development will be centered around work that Book-Larsson had already seen during his time as CTO and COO.
Apple's new CEO Tim Cook addresses employees in staff letter
With less than 24 hours under his belt as the new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook has sent a letter to the company's staff this morning, thanking his predecessor, and predicting bright things for Apple's future. The note reads, in part, I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is. Read the full text of the letter after the break.
Xbox COO sees dedicated handheld market as a 'red ocean,' will let Sony and Nintendo swim in it
Dennis Durkin is COO and CFO for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. He's also a dude thoroughly disillusioned with the future of portable consoles. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Durkin explains that the "crowded" nature of the mobile gaming market right now makes it extremely difficult to launch a dedicated handheld gaming device successfully -- in his colorful words, it's "a very, very red ocean." Whose blood is soiling those waters? The Nintendo 3DS, says Durkin, which has sold reasonably well, but has clearly failed to reach the lofty expectations set for it by fans and previous handhelds from the company. Likewise, the PS Vita invites a lot of skepticism from the Xbox chief, who says his excitement is reserved for what Microsoft can do with Kinect, Xbox Live and unique content. You might say it's to be expected that an Xbox exec would be casting doubt over Sony's great new hope, but what we learn in the process is that Microsoft has no intentions of squaring up to its home console nemesis on the mobile front. Not with dedicated hardware, anyway.
APB Reloaded keeps us up to date on development
It's always good to see a games company keep the lines of communication open in regard to an upcoming title. It's especially nice to see those frequent morsels of communication presented in an open and downright amusing fashion! The team behind All Points Bulletin: Reloaded is certainly managing to do just that, as we can see in its most recent update. According to none other than the COO/CTO for GamersFirst, Bjorn "TechMech" Book-Larsson, the team currently working on ABP: Reloaded has made a huge find in terms of server bugs. Apparently, the way the current in-game death camera is coded, the entire sector hits a lag spike -- or as he puts it, "take[s] a brief 100ms moment of silence" when a player is killed. This, in turn, causes a lot of the rubberbanding that players see on their end. Finding this bug means that the team is now hard at work on a fix, and Book-Larsson is hopeful that we may even see it released to closed beta players within a matter of days. If you're curious about the progress GamersFirst is making on APB: Reloaded, then be sure to head over and check out the newest blog post or go get signed up for closed beta! [Thanks, Connor!]
Tim Cook in NYT, says joining Apple was 'best decision I ever made'
The New York Times has written a nice profile of Tim Cook, who is once again sliding into the driver's seat at Apple while Steve Jobs takes medical leave. To hear the paper tell it, Cook is both a man well-prepared to fill Jobs' role if needed, and yet not exactly the creative visionary Jobs has become. While Jobs runs the company with a wide-ranging vision for products and how they're used, Cook is the details man -- a master of spreadsheets, factory dealings, supply chains and efficiency. Cook previously worked at both IBM and Compaq, and in this commencement speech at Auburn University last year (embedded after the break), he says that moving over to Apple was "the best decision I ever made." He says that lots of the conventional wisdom he heard at the time told him not to bother joining Apple -- the company was a shell of its former self, and the iPod hadn't yet materialized. But his intuition told him to join up to "work for the creative genius and to be on the executive team that could resurrect a great American company," and he says that "no more than 5 minutes into my initial interview with Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple." If Jobs does have to step down permanently, odds are that Cook is the man that will take the CEO job. And while Apple will never be the same without Steve Jobs, Tim Cook's clearly dedicated to the company he took a chance on over a decade ago.
