Former AOL president Bob Lord is moving over to IBM as its chief digital officer, IBM confirmed to Ad Age on Monday, as Big Blue looks to dive further into tech-driven agency services.
In his new role, Mr. Lord will aim to hasten "all aspects of IBM's digital presence, operations and ecosystem," according to a staff memo.
Mr. Lord was integral in transforming AOL from a legacy internet provider to a digital advertising powerhouse. During his time there, the company upgraded its ad-tech arm via a flurry of acquisitions that included Millennial Media and analytics firm Convertro, among others. AOL recently consolidated six technologies for publishers into an offering called One by AOL: Publishers.
Mr. Lord, who is also a former CEO at Publicis Groupe North America's Razorfish, went to AOL when its ad tech business was in its "1.0" stage.
He left AOL nearly six months ago, after Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion.
Re/Code reported the news of his hire by IBM on Sunday after a tweet by David Kenney, general manager for IBM's Watson and previously managing partner of VivaKi, where Publicis housed Razorfish after buying it in 2009.
Thrilled to be working with @rwlord again. He will be a great chief digital officer at @IBM pic.twitter.com/ZF6TiHEZz0
— David Kenny (@davidwkenny) April 3, 2016