• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 11, 2014

Mobile ad network Millennial Media on Wednesday said it has hired former Google executive Marc Theermann as EVP, business strategy.
 
In the new post, he will report to CEO and president Michael Barrett and oversee the company’s “strategy, direction and go-to-market execution for business, corporate and international development.” He will be based in Millennial’s Boston office.
 
At Google, Theermann led mobile platform sales, managing the publisher sales organizations for its mobile ad products. He joined Google when it acquired ad optimization platform Admeld (where he worked with Barrett) in 2011 for $400 million.

Earlier in his career, Theermann co-founded two wireless companies in Boston -- YellowPepper and Everypoint.
 
In its announcement, Millennial Media said it would look to Theermann to help accelerate its expansion into programmatic and native advertising. The company last year announced a partnership with AppNexus to create a mobile ad exchange, dubbed the Millennial Media Exchange, as its programmatic platform.
 
During the company’s most recent earnings call, in May, Barrett said its programmatic business was growing fast, but would not generate material revenue for a few more quarters. As an independent ad platform, Millennial is contending with Google and Facebook as the dominant players in mobile advertising, as well as other mobile-focused companies like Twitter.
 
Millennial reported a $12.9 million loss in the first quarter and projects that second-quarter revenue will fall below analysts’ projections. Barrett said during the May earnings call that the company planned to grow by diversifying its revenue streams and grab more of the brand advertising dollars shifting to mobile.