• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 6, 2006

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Tuesday named veteran journalist and marketing consultant Randall Rothenberg its new president and CEO. Tasked with overseeing a ballooning online ad market, Rothenberg, a veteran of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, faces the prospect of familiarizing traditional marketers with the fast-changing online marketplace.

Rothenberg, 50, replaces Greg Stuart, who announced in August that he was stepping down as CEO of the IAB, which he had led since November 2001. Rothenberg comes to the IAB after seven years with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he most recently served as senior director of intellectual capital.

"This is a chance to work with some of the most interesting areas of the business, reinventing the future of media and marketing," Rothenberg said. The main issues facing the industry, he added, are its increasing complexity and constant reshaping.

"We have to simplify, simplify, simplify," he said. "A great trade organization in any industry should help foster growth by eliminating the friction in the ecosystem--to help build bridges between media, agencies and chief marketing officers."

Martin Nisenholtz, CEO, New York Times Digital and a member of the IAB's executive board of directors, added that Rothenberg will bring "a sense of creativity and excitement" to the position. "He's a very interesting and exciting person."

News of his appointment was welcomed by some industry insiders, who perceive Rothenberg as a forward-thinking and clear-headed agent for change. "What the industry really needs now is an understanding of the challenges that marketers are facing and being able to chart a path for the interactive side of the business," said IAB board member Dave Morgan, chairman of behavioral targeting ad network Tacoda.

"The entire media and advertising world is in a bit of chaos right now," Morgan said, referring to a host of recent developments ranging from the emergence of video-sharing sites like YouTube to the rise of social networking. "So many things are changing so fast. Life is hard for everybody, whether you're a media buyer, media seller or marketer," he said. "Marketers are looking for answers and are looking for strategies."

Chris Young, executive vice president of rich media at DoubleClick, added that the IAB now can play a major role in assisting marketers that want to migrate their budgets to the Web. "The industry needs leadership in a big way as more and more TV dollars flood the Internet," said Young. "The fact that he's been with Booz Allen and understands how to tackle tough problems is reassuring."

The landscape today is very different from the last time the IAB got a new leader. Five years ago, when Stuart took the reins, the main challenge was convincing marketers that the Web was a viable advertising medium, Morgan said. Today, by contrast, the IAB's most pressing matter is to help marketers determine what portions of their budgets should be devoted to interactive advertising.

"Greg got us out of the nuclear winter," Morgan said. "Now, the question is, 'Okay, we're at the table, but who's going to determine the shape of the table, and what interactive's role will be in the allocation of budget.'"

Rothenberg is also a longtime editor-at-large for Advertising Age magazine, and spent six years at The New York Times, where he served at various times as technology editor and politics editor of the Sunday magazine, the daily advertising columnist and a media and marketing reporter.

During his tenure at Booz Allen, Rothenberg also served as the firm's chief marketing officer and as editor in chief of its management journal, strategy+business.

He will start at the IAB early next year.