• by David Kaplan , January 12, 2005

Marketing veteran Derek Koenig has left his position as vice president of brand advertising at America Online to become senior vice president of marketing for the U.S. division of Discovery Communications. In his new role, Koenig will focuse on strategic partnerships and brand extension opportunities for TLC.

Koenig will also serve as a liaison with internal departments to leverage promotional opportunities, including the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, the creation of which was announced Monday and will be headed by champion cyclist and marketer Lance Armstrong.

At AOL, Koenig was responsible for the marketing of all AOL Brands, including dial-up, broadband, Netscape, AOL Latino, and MovieFone. While there, Koenig created a fully integrated Super Bowl marketing promotion, as well as other media relationships including the World Series, Daytona 500, and the Tour de France. Before moving to AOL, he served as director of consumer marketing at Sony Electronics Corporation, where he was responsible for $75 million in marketing and advertising and led the repositioning of the Sony brands to target demographics.