AOL Hires Top Yahoo Mail Exec McDowell to Head Communications Products

AOL has hired Dave McDowell, who has been one of Yahoo’s top Mail and Messenger product execs, to head its communications products unit.

The announcement was made via an internal posting to staff, which is below in its entirety.

At Yahoo, where he has worked for a decade, McDowell “drove monetization, partnerships and data for Yahoo Mail, Messenger and Groups,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

Yahoo’s communications businesses — which have been under fire over the last year due to several outages and other snafus — is headed by Jeff Bonforte.

At AOL, according to the memo, McDowell will be in charge of “AOL’s entire suite of communication products, including AOL Mail, Alto, AIM, Client, Calendar and Address Book” and based at its Palo Alto, Calif., office.

I had recently heard that McDowell had left the Silicon Valley Internet giant, but it was not clear where he was headed. Now we know.

Here’s the AOL memo:

AOL Welcomes Dave McDowell as Head of AOL Communication Products

By Bud Rosenthal, CEO, AOL Membership & Paid Services Group

As the pace of innovation accelerates in mobile and desktop consumer applications, it’s imperative we have the best product talent to keep AOL’s suite of products evolving. To that end, I’m excited to announce today that Dave McDowell will be joining our group as SVP/GM of AOL Communication Products.

In his new role, Dave will oversee AOL’s entire suite of communication products, including AOL Mail, Alto, AIM, Client, Calendar and Address Book. Dave will focus on evolving the product strategy across all current communication products as well as the development of new products and services we can offer to AOL’s large and loyal audience.

Dave is a seasoned internet executive with deep expertise in communication products. As Vice President of Product Management at Yahoo, David was responsible for the monetization and growth of Yahoo’s communication products, representing 300 million monthly users worldwide. He drove more than $100M in new revenue with innovative advertising formats and new targeting products, and helped broker partnerships with the likes of Apple, AT&T, Dropbox, Microsoft and Nokia to improve the user experience and reach of Yahoo Mail.

As consumers’ use of communication tools continues to evolve, Dave’s addition to the AOL team will help us identify and seize growth opportunities, as well as fully leverage these powerful platforms within AOL Membership and across the Company more broadly.

I couldn’t be more excited about Dave joining our team, and I’m confident that his leadership and experience will be a huge asset to AOL. Please join me in welcoming him to the team, effective today. He will be based in our Palo Alto office.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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