Wanadoo Raids T-Mobile For Marketing Chief
Internet service provider Wanadoo has ended its search for a new managing director of sales and communications with the appointment of Philip Mehl, former vice president of international advertising and communications at T-Mobile.
Mehl will replace former marketing head, Keith Hawkins, who left the company, then known as Freeserve, shortly before it rebranded with the backing of an extensive £20 million cross-media campaign created by M&C Saatchi (see Freeserve Marks Rebrand With New Broadband Services).
The appointment of Philip Mehl is part of a wide-ranging restructure of Wanadoo’s UK operations, which will also see two other high-profile hirings complete the internet service provider’s management team.
Mark Overton, head of products and services at mobile firm 3, is also expected to join Wanadoo, taking up the position of managing director of strategy, products and services in the next month. It is understood that Mehl and Overton will be accompanied by Deborah Sherry, Wanadoo’s portal channels director, who will be promoted to managing director of portal revenues.
Wanadoo’s restructuring should draw a line under the company’s recent rebranding and marketing push, which saw Freeserve adopt the name of its French parent company in a move that consigned one of the UK’s biggest and most established internet brands to the dotcom history books (see Freeserve Marks Rebrand With New Broadband Services).
Earlier this month Wanadoo was ordered to make it clear that some of the search results on its website are paid for by advertising following complaints from consumers. The ASA ruled that internet users had been mislead by the fact that sponsored links on the site were not clearly identifiable (see Wanadoo Rapped Over Misleading Search Advertising).
Wanadoo: 0870 872 0099 www.wanadoo.co.uk
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