AOL's Lord to exit Verizon-owned company in 2016

AOL President Bob Lord is leaping back onto the path he was on before the online company was acquired by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) earlier this year: moving toward running a publicly-owned company. The executive said he will leave AOL sometime in 2016, though an exact date hasn't been announced.

According to The Wall Street Journal, prior to the company's acquisition, Chief Executive Tim Armstrong was grooming Lord to be his successor at AOL. Armstrong has committed to stay on at AOL for "several more years," WSJ said, while Lord will find a new place at a company that is publicly traded or that is on its way to going public.

Currently, no plans have been announced in regard to naming a successor.

Lord was instrumental in AOL's shift from a Web services-based company to one focused more closely on the digital media world, including online video and particularly advertising. AOL's ONE platform was launched shortly before Verizon acquired the company; the programmatic advertising platform, which enabled brands to manage campaigns through multiple programmatic providers, was considered instrumental to the deal.

Verizon's Go90 streaming service will include ONE by AOL programmatic advertising elements as the platform grows.

Lord started his tenure at AOL in July 2013 as the head of AOL Networks. He didn't announce where his next position will be, especially since his departure is currently open-ended. However, Lord has significant digital ad agency experience, including a stint at Razorfish, WSJ noted.

For more:
- see this WSJ article

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