In the wake of the resignations of three top executives, AOL Monday announced a broad restructuring of its management team.
The biggest organizational change is that executives in
charge of key divisions including programming, ad sales, instant messaging, and wireless will now report to Ron Grant, the newly named president and chief operating officer. Previously, those
positions reported directly to former chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller--who was recently ousted
in favor of NBC veteran Randy Falco.
In addition, Executive Vice President Kevin Conroy will now be responsible for the company's products, including its instant messaging service, video, and
mobile, while Bill Wilson will head programming. A third executive, not yet named, will lead platforms, including search. Those three and four other executives--ad sales head Mike Kelly, paid services
chief Kim Partoll, technology operations head Balan Nair, and an as-yet-unnamed chief executive for international--will report to Grant.
The new structure is designed to eliminate some of the
previous overlaps in responsibility. For instance, in the past, Executive Vice President Jim Bankoff was in charge of programming as well as the instant messaging service. And responsibility for
mobile previously fell to Joe Redling, who served as president of AOL's mobile, customer management and paid services businesses, as well as chairman and CEO of AOL International.
Bankoff and
Redling both recently resigned from AOL, as did John Buckley, executive vice president for
corporate communications.
AOL notified employees of the new management on Monday.