• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 16, 2008

Premium ad network Undertone Networks on Monday named John Sabella as its new chief technology officer. Sabella will be responsible for guiding the company's overall technology strategy and development efforts.

Based out of the company's San Francisco office, Sabella said the name of the game is technology.

"There is a huge opportunity to take advantage of technology to further enhance our current offering, and become an even more valuable partner for our advertisers and publishers," Sabella said.

Prior to joining Undertone, Sabella was senior vice president of engineering at Rhythm NewMedia, an ad-supported mobile video company, where he managed the development and launch of the company's mobile video advertising platform.

Founded in 2002, New York-based Undertone operates an ad network with partners including ESPN.com and Discovery Communications. It currently has offices in seven major U.S. media markets.

A division of Intercept Interactive, Undertone has aspirations as a full-service interactive media and marketing firm. Pursuing growth at home and abroad, Undertone earlier this year received investment in the range of $40 million to $100 million from JMI Equity.

Last year, it launched a search engine marketing and search engine optimization practice, dubbed Undertone Search. The pay-per-click SEM offering encompasses ads on all major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com, and is a fully managed service with Undertone reps managing planning, keyword identification, bid management, tracking and reporting.

Also, to bolster its publishing services, Undertone in January brought on Weather.com executive Peter Green as senior vice president of ad sales. Green held the same title at Weather.com.

Before Rhythm, Sabella served as chief technology officer and chief operations officer at Conducive Corporation, where he designed and delivered adMarketplace.net, an Internet ad-buying technology based on an open, transparent marketplace and a scalable self-service model.

With more than a decade of interactive experience, Sabella has served on a host of advisory boards for digital companies, including Tacoda, Inc., Adap.tv, Permuto, and AdInfuse. He is a graduate of Columbia University.