Yahoo! marketing chief Jon Gisby poised to quit

Yahoo! top marketer Jon Gisby is thought to be poised to leave the US media giant after failing to secure a position at the helm of Yahoo! Europe.

Gisby was previously appointed managing director and vice-president of media and communications of Yahoo! Europe, but earlier this year had been appointed to head a new Audience Experience group at the internet service provider. Yahoo! denies Gisby is leaving, saying he has merely been heading a division temporarily and any move will be within the group. But insiders claim Gisby is unhappy with his role at the company.

In a statement issued to Marketing Week, Yahoo! says: “Earlier this year, as part of our move towards being more customer focused, we created a new and important group called Audience Experience, which runs across all of the products in Yahoo! Europe. Jon Gisby was appointed on an interim basis to define and develop the detailed responsibilities of the Audience Experience group as we wanted a senior, experienced executive to drive that process immediately.

“We have always planned to recruit a permanent person to lead the Audience Experience team once it was fully operational, with Jon Gisby assuming other responsibilities. We’re at the beginning of that phase now and look forward to announcing the Audience Experience appointment in due course and the new role that Jon will play.”

Gisby was made managing director of Yahoo! UK & Ireland and vice-president of media in May 2005, although he had babysat the role since December the previous year. Insiders say his role as head of the Audience Experience Group was never truly defined although the company says it was to work with advertisers to target consumers through Yahoo!’s various offerings.

Gisby is credited with “an excellent CV” being both Oxford and Harvard educated. However, insiders say that he was perceived to be a little anonymous among agency representatives.