Verizon Communications announced today that K. Guru Gowrappan, who has served as Oath’s President and COO since April, will assume all management responsibilities at Oath as CEO next October. Gowrappan will report to Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg.
Oath is the is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. It serves as the umbrella company of its digital content subdivisions, including AOL and Yahoo!.
AOL’s former CEO will help guide the Verizon subsidiary’s management transition efforts as a strategic advisor before leaving the company at the end of 2018. He will report to Verizon Chairman Lowell McAdam.
Gowrappan, who joined Oath from Alibaba Group, will lead the next phase of Oath’s global growth strategy once the integration of AOL/Yahoo operations and ad tech platforms are completed under Armstrong’s strategic direction. This process is coming to an end, Verizon explains.
Vestberg said, “Guru has proven experience in scaling businesses globally. I’m thrilled he will lead Oath in an exciting new phase of growth, building on the foundation Tim and his team have created by delivering brands our customers love.”
In his former role as President and COO, Gowrappan was responsible for the day-to-day operating businesses at Oath, including all of the consumer and customer brands, operations, products and technology.
As Alibaba’s Global Managing director, Gowrappan focused on international expansion for key consumer and enterprise products across ecommerce, entertainment and media, payments and the entire commerce-enabling stack. Previously, he was COO at Quixey, a mobile startup, and prior to that he was the COO for growth/emerging initiatives at Zynga. He has also held several leadership roles at Yahoo and Overture.
Armstrong joined AOL in 2009 and was named Oath’s CEO in 2017. He has led Verizon’s digital media and online advertising platform business, and the growth and development of iconic consumer brands such as AOL, Yahoo, RYOT, TechCrunch, HuffPost, MAKERS and many others.
“We are exceedingly grateful to Tim for his contributions in founding Oath as a force in digital media and technology,” said McAdam. “With his continued guidance over the next few months, our enthusiasm for Oath’s potential has never been greater.”
Headquartered in New York City, Verizon Communications Inc. generated $126Bn revenues in 2017. The company operates America’s most reliable wireless network and the nation’s premier all-fiber network, and delivers integrated solutions to businesses worldwide. Its Oath subsidiary reaches people around the world with a dynamic house of media and technology brands.
Headquartered in New York and Sunnyvale, Oath has currently offices all accross the USA and overseas in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and United Kingdom.
As of June 2017, Oath employed around 12,000 people in its propperties, including among others the Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, Flickr, Yahoo! News, or Tumblr just to name some examples.
Image over the headline.- K. Guru Gowrappan (President, COO and CEO, Oath) -left-. Image from Gowrappan’s Linkedin profile. Tim Armstrong (Founder, Oath). Photo © Verizon Communications.
