Turn announced today that Bill Demas has been promoted to CEO of Turn, Inc., an online advertising platform and network company. Jim Barnett, who stepped down from the CEO role, will remain as Chairman. According to the company, this secession plan has been in the works for a while and Demas has been “deeply involved” with the company as a board member since 2007 and as its COO since December.
Demas told AdExchanger.com that among other things, the combination of Turn’s buying platform strategy and its rapidly growing ad network made the role very attractive as the company attempts to expand beyond its “traditional focus on performance advertising into brand advertising.”
He also suggested that some of the learnings from his Yahoo!/Overture days will be applicable with Turn saying, “Just as Overture pioneered search advertising and helped large agencies and advertisers to succeed, Turn is pioneering strategic technologies in display advertising for the same types of companies.”
Demas added that Turn is “an earlier version of the hyper-growth I helped lead at Overture. We had to rapidly scale our operations both nationally and internationally while hiring the very best.”
Outgoing CEO Jim Barnett said in the release, “Bill has been an exceptional leader and trusted colleague for many years, and has played a critical role in Turn’s remarkable growth. I can’t think of anyone more qualified and better suited to take over as CEO of Turn as we continue our rapid growth.”
Read the release here.
