Following a protracted search to find a successor for
founding CEO George John who stepped down in March, Rocket Fuel has named long-time Salesforce.com executive Randy Wooton its new CEO.
Wootton, who also joined Rocket Fuel in March
as Chief Revenue Officer, replaces Monte Zweben, who has been acting as interim CEO.
Wooton also joins the Rocket Fuel board.
Prior to joining Rocket Fuel, Wootton
scaled Salesforce.com’s Customer Success Product Portfolio P&L from under $200 million to nearly $500 million in three years. Previously, he led Microsoft’s cross-functional operations
for the Global Search Services and Online Marketplace where he was instrumental in operationalizing Microsoft’s "Search Alliance" agreement with Yahoo! for the small and medium sized space.
With Wootton’s transition to CEO, Zweben will become executive chairman. Now that the succession is in place, founder John will step down from Rocket Fuel’s board.
The
company said John plans to join a venture capital firm as an executive in residence to explore new opportunities in artificial intelligence.