Former Google Exec to Lead WebTrends

In the US, web analytics firm WebTrends has appointed former Google executive Daniel Stickel as its new CEO, replacing Board member Bruce Coleman who took temporary control of the firm following the departure of Greg Drew last October.

At Google, Stickel was responsible for syndication products, serving hundreds of thousands of partners and tens of millions of end users. Prior to this, he led the Macrovision Software Technologies Group, served as President of wireless broadband venture Conomae Corporation, was EVP at AltaVista, and co-founded data integration and analysis software firm K2 Technologies. Stickel holds a BA in Applied Mathematics and a Masters in Computer Science, both from Harvard University.

Commented Neil Garfinkel, a Partner at Francisco Partners, a global private equity firm with a significant investment in WebTrends: 'We believe that Daniel's leadership abilities and broad experience, together with the extensive industry knowledge of WebTrends' existing executive team, will drive the firm in the next phase of growth.'

Stickel says that his immediate focus will be to reach out to key customers, partners, prospects and employees in order to gain an understanding of where the company is 'hitting the mark' and where it needs to do better. 'WebTrends wrote the book on analytics and my job is to ensure we continue to write the book on the industry as it matures and develops into the broader opportunity of integrated enterprise marketing software,' he added.

Last autumn, WebTrends fired its former CEO Greg Drew, in a major shakeup aimed at accelerating the company's growth prospects. At the time, Vice Presidents Jason Palmer, Tore Steen and Hamid Bahadori also left, and in January the firm's Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kopp followed to take up a post at e-mail marketing firm ExactTarget.

WebTrends is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and is on the web at www.webtrends.com .