• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 8, 2009

Canoe Ventures, the cable-operator initiative aiming to maximize advertising opportunities using its pipes, has named a number-two executive under CEO David Verklin. Kathy Timko joins as COO, from telecom company IDT.

Timko had been COO at the Carrier Services unit of IDT, a company she had been with for a decade. She has a technology background -- having held a chief technology officer role at an IDT division -- which could benefit Canoe as it searches for ways to implement its stated goals, including establishing a national addressable advertising platform.

Verklin said Timko's "successful career in managing and scaling high-tech organizations will serve us well during this critical time as we ... develop and deploy our first products."

Canoe Ventures is funded by the six largest cable operators, and plans to use access to the combined 60 million set-top boxes of their customers to launch a range of systems to drive ad revenues -- both for the operators and cable networks.