AOL has appointed Alexander Gounares as the new chief technology officer and as a member of its Global Executive Operating Committee, who will lead all aspects of the company’s technology strategy, platform development and external technology partnerships as well as play a key role in the overall strategy and direction of the company.
Mr Gounares will report to AOL chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong and will be based at AOL’s Dulles, Virginia campus, the company’s principle engineering and technology hub.
Mr Gounares joins AOL from Microsoft where he was a corporate vice president and chief technology officer for Microsoft’s Online Services Division.
During his tenure at Microsoft, Gounares led significant strategic and technical operations for some of the company’s most important projects including Microsoft’s global advertising platform, Bing search, MSN and Microsoft Virtual Earth. He also served for 3 years as technology advisor to Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates, as well as corporate vice president of corporate strategy in Microsoft’s finance department.
In his new role, Gounares will also oversee AOL’s expansion of engineering centers and technology talent across the globe. AOL’s CIO and internal IT functions will also report into Gounares.
Mr Armstrong said: “I’m delighted to welcome Alex to AOL’s global leadership team. Alex is a world-class technologist and he has proven leadership experience in the development of global consumer and business platforms for the Internet.
“Alex brings deep experience in our strategy areas, as well as meaningful experience in strategy and corporate operations. We are looking forward to Alex joining the AOL team and ushering in the next phase of AOL’s technology platforms.”
