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Latest Google Exec Departure

With its culture of innovation, continued market dominance, and legendary perks, Google is often portrayed as the top employer in America. Yet, in an uncertain business climate, the search giant has recently experienced its fair share of defections and executive turnover.



Just this week, Michael Rubenstein, who joined Google when it acquired DoubleClick in 2008, left the company "to pursue another opportunity," as Media Memo reports. At DoubleClick and then Google, Rubenstein was in charge of building an ad exchange, which has yet to officially launch as initial excitement over such a product fades.



Rubenstein's departure follows former DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt's exit from the company at the end of April.



Rosenblatt, president of Google's global display advertising business, was the third major executive to leave the company in the last two months, after Tim Armstrong, former head of Americas sales, left to become AOL's CEO and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former president of Google's Asia Pacific and Latin America operations, left to join a venture capital firm.



RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler said the trio of Google sales execs "carried a significant amount of weight in the industry, especially with ad agencies." However, he didn't think the moves necessarily reflected badly on Google. "I think these are pretty easily explainable cases of very wealthy individuals looking for new challenges," he said.



Still Google's broader sales department has been in a total state of flux. At the end of the month, David Fischer, Google's VP for global online sales and operations, plans to begin a sabbatical, and then return in January with a new focus on Google products -- including Geo, local, and Check-Out.



At least temporarily, Nikesh Arora, Google' president of global sales operations and business development, is assuming Fischer's responsibilities.



In April, Arora, formerly president of international operations and head of Google Europe, replaced Omid Kordestani as Google's global sales boss.



Turnover isn't an entirely new phenomenon at Google. In March of last year, Fischer replaced Sheryl Sandberg, who left Google to assume the role of chief operating officer at Facebook.

Read the whole story at Media Memo »

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