Motorola Shakes Up Marketing Team

In the US, Motorola's Chief Marketing Officer Kenneth 'Casey' Keller has left the firm following a restructure which has seen his job 'absorbed' by two of his former deputies - Jeremy Dale who is marketing chief for the mobile devices unit, and Eduardo Conrado who will run marketing for the rest of the firm.

Keller had been responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing Motorola's global marketing efforts including strategy development and execution, market research, agency management, public relations and marketing communications. He joined the firm in October 2006 from Heinz Italy where he was CEO. Before this, he had spent ten years with Procter & Gamble, where he was responsible for the Pringles brand.

Motorola said in a statement that its reorganization of the marketing team fits into its broader strategy to more closely align marketing with the business.

'We expect that this new structure will facilitate the further development of our brand, increase our product-marketing effectiveness and accelerate the growth and success of Motorola.' The company added that Keller had been a key contributor to the development and implementation of its global marketing strategy and thanked him for his efforts.

Dale, who originally trained as an accountant, was previously VP-Brand Marketing at British Telecom Orange, where he initiated the 'Orange Wednesdays' cinema program. He also worked at games giant Nintendo.

Conrado joined Motorola in 1991, and since this time, has worked in multiple areas including paging, joint ventures, satellite products and mobile devices.

These changes come at a time when the firm's President and CEO Greg Brown is considering spinning off its mobile devices business from the rest of the group. The firm is also facing a challenge from investor Carl Icahn, who has been pushing for the sale of the company's consumer handset business.

For the full year 2007, Motorola recorded a net loss of $49m, compared with a profit of $3.6bn in 2006, largely due to the ailing devices segment.

The company is online at www.motorola.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.