AOL Names Dave Morgan EVP, Global Advertising Strategy

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AOL announced today that it has named Dave Morgan Executive Vice President, Global Advertising Strategy, focusing on advertising strategy, partnerships, both in the U.S. and abroad, and communicating AOL’s value proposition to the market. Morgan joins AOL from TACODA, a company he founded in 2001 and AOL acquired in September 2007. He will report to Ron Grant, President and COO of AOL.

“We are delighted to have Dave onboard. He’s a true visionary when it comes to the online advertising space, an adept strategist, and someone who knows how to grow a business,” said Ron Grant, President and COO of AOL. “Dave will help us complete our transition to an ad-supported Web business, working with our programming, commerce, products and Platform-A teams to make sure everything we do supports our ad strategy, while looking for opportunities to grow our business here and abroad."

“This is a great time to be joining AOL,” Morgan said. ”We have the largest online display ad network, an enormous, loyal audience on our worldwide owned and operated sites, the best collection of ad targeting technologies in the market, a great brand, and tremendous potential internationally. I’m looking forward to working with the entire AOL team to build a global, market-leading digital media business.”

Before coming to AOL, Morgan was CEO and Chairman of TACODA, which he founded in 2001. Morgan was also founder of Real Media, Inc., in 1995, which was one of the first online ad networks and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media. Morgan also has served as General Counsel and Director of New Media Ventures for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, where he helped launch more than a dozen new media businesses in the early 90’s. He is a frequent speaker, writer, and commentator on advertising issues, and is involved in a number of industry trade groups, with board positions on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the digital marketing board of the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA).

Morgan received a B.A. in Political Science from The Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law.

In addition to TACODA, AOL has acquired four other advertising companies: Advertising.com, which AOL acquired in 2004, operates the largest display ad network; ADTECH, a leading ad serving company based in Frankfurt, Germany; Third Screen Media, a leader in mobile advertising; and Lightningcast, a leader in video advertising. Earlier this week, AOL announced plans to acquire Quigo, a leading contextual advertising company. And in September, AOL launched Platform-A, which offers advertisers access to the most sophisticated targeting and measurement tools available in the marketplace across Platform-A’s network of third-party sites, as well as AOL’s owned and operated sites, which combined reach 94% of the domestic online audience.

About AOL

AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.