Overture Services, the world's leading provider of Pay-For-Performance search to Web sites across the Internet, this week announced that it has named KEN ROSS as Chief Communications Officer. Ross most recently served as Vice President of Corporate Communications for consumer products maker Newell Rubbermaid, where he was responsible for internal and external communications strategies. Earlier, he served as Senior Vice President of communications for Internet retailer eToys and associate partner and worldwide director of media and analyst relations for Andersen Consulting.

Dex Media East, LLC, this week named MARILYN NEAL as the company's Chief Operating Officer. Most recently, she served as Regional President of Verizon Information Services, where she had P&L responsibility for a $3 billion operation over a 15-state region.

Valassis, a leading company in marketing services and Connective Media, announced the appointment of LARRY BERG to the position of Vice President of ROP and Media Sales. Berg's previous media purchasing and operations responsibilities as Vice President of Newspaper Sales and Purchasing have been transferred to Bill Blackmer, Director of Strategic Sourcing for Valassis. Berg began his career at Valassis in 1987. A strong newspaper industry advocate, Berg has built relationships between Valassis and newspapers nationwide.

AOL Time Warner's America Online unit this week named a former Charles Schwab & Co. executive to a new position overseeing brand marketing. LEONARD SHORT, formerly Executive Vice President of Advertising and Brand Management at Charles Schwab, will now have the title Executive Vice President of Brand Marketing. Short will oversee AOL's domestic and international brand marketing efforts, including brand advertising and media, promotional marketing and overall brand management. Prior to Schwab, Short was president of Worldwide 1 on 1, a New York-based direct marketing and consumer relationship marketing agency whose clients included GE Capital, MCI, Citibank, Chrysler and Marriott …

ALISON BURNS, President of Publicis Groupe's Fallon Worldwide, New York, is stepping down to start a consultancy, the agency said. Succeeding her as president is Anne Bologna, Fallon's Minneapolis-based Director of Planning. She will move to New York and take over the office Feb 1. Burns, who had been New York President since 1998, led the agency's recovery following the Sept. 11 attacks. As a result of the terror attacks and dot-com implosion, the office has roughly one third of the billings it had in 2000. Since then, the agency has rebuilt its creative department and management team, and the …

ANGELA MONCAYO-YEAR has been named Local Sales Manager of Univision's New York TV stations, WXTV Channel 41, the Univision network affiliate, and WFUT+ (WFUT Channel 68 and WFTY Channel 67) the Gotham Telefutura outlet. Moncayo-Year will be one of four Local Sales Managers at the New York Univision and Telefutura stations. Prior to joining Univision, Moncayo-Yera was Local Sales Manager at NBC-owned Telemundo station WNJU Channel 47 in New York.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) announced this week that STAN WEIL has joined the organization as its Executive Vice President and Director of Strategic Marketing Partnerships. Weil is a 25-year veteran of the broadcast/cable media industry and is considered one of the architects of the cable media industry's success. He spent 13 years at Turner Broadcasting, rising to the post of executive vice president, advertising sales, with responsibility for TBS, TNT, Turner Program Syndication and The Cartoon Network, helping to build the latter from the ground up.

Direct-marketing veteran JIM MAROUS has joined the business development team at Alcott Routon, a Nashville, Tenn.-based national direct-marketing agency. As Midwest director of business development, Marous will be responsible for developing new acquisition, activation, cross-sell, retention and CRM programs for Alcott Routon’s clients. Marous previously was Executive Vice President of Business Development for Brann Worldwide, a direct marketing organization with offices in North America and Europe.

MTV Networks has appointed ALBIE HECHT to President of TNN. A producer who joined MTV Network in 1993, Hecht has overseen the development of several MTV Networks series and specials including Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Kids Choice Awards. He also built Nickelodeon Animation Studios, the first TV animation, and oversaw the creation of The Wild Thornberrys, Hey Arnold, Catdog, Rocket Power, ChalkZone, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Fairly Odd Parents.

Arbitron Inc. has promoted STACIE DE ARMAS to Director of Hispanic Marketing Services. As the Director of Hispanic Marketing Services, de Armas offers her expertise to agencies and advertisers interested in developing multi-cultural marketing and advertising campaigns. She is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with advertisers and advertising agencies targeting the Hispanic market. Most recently, de Armas held the position of Senior Account Manager with Arbitron’s Advertising/Agency Services, working predominantly on key Hispanic advertiser/agency accounts. Prior to Arbitron, she was a media analyst and broadcast buyer for the general and Hispanic markets at McCann-Erickson in Los Angeles.