• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 14, 2010

Meet Jeff Pullen. He lives in Santa Barbara, Calif. The former chief executive officer at U.S. Search, and chief operating officer at ValueClick, officially joined AudienceScience this week as president and chief operating officer.

Jeff Hirsch, who remains chief executive officer, and Pullen have been friends since 2001.

Pullen's passion to create successful online marketing businesses by bringing expertise to bear, helping build a team and establishing consistent operating strategies no doubt landed him the job.

"I did that in my previous career," Pullen says. "The business model is established, but there's still room for improvement."

Pullen sees the industry moving toward new technologies to provide better real-time ad targeting and optimization of online ad spend. He plans to help take AudienceScience in that direction.

When I asked Pullen his first course of action, he tells me "I'm going to access operational processes and communicate within the organization to understand what they do, how effective they are, and where they think the challenges remain."

He says that employees who have worked at a company for years already know how to unearth the opportunities. You simply need to ask them. Many times management won't take the time to hear their goals.

From an outsider's perspective, Pullen seems to fit well into the company's strategy, especially as Hirsch pushes to make "AudienceScience" a common verb that easily rolls off the tongue of agency execs. "We want to make sure our employees have the tools to serve the clients," Pullen says, considering the company serves both advertisers and agencies.

You see, AudienceScience has stepped up efforts to make its presence known. For example, the IAB Behavioral Targeting Council appointed Stuart Colman, managing director of European operations at AudienceScience, its first chair.

AudienceScience secured $20 million in venture capital funding in 2009. It's using the funds to accelerate growth, including further research and development for core targeting technology, and international expansion. It opened three office locations worldwide, with 30 appointments, including Denise Colella as chief revenue officer, U.K.-based Roger Williams as director of international marketing, and Xiaoming Shao, managing director Asia Pacific.