Execs & Accounts for January 28, 2004

Interactive agency Avenue A named Maggie Boyer to head its new Chicago office. The new VP and general manager is best known for her work as Avenue A’s VP of media, where she led the agency’s media group operations and publisher relations from 1998 to 2003. Most recently, Boyer was Avenue A’s VP of the Midwest region.

“The central U.S. is home to a vast array of savvy marketers, many of which are already reaping the benefits of digital marketing,” said Boyer.

Avenue A/Chicago launched with a new client. JCPenney.com tapped the agency to handle its interactive media planning and buying, and search marketing efforts.

PointRoll hired yet another former DoubleClick exec. New senior VP of Global Sales Andrew Ellenthal joins four other veterans of DoubleClick who have recently begun working for the rich media firm.

Ellenthal was most recently VP of business development for Marketing Management Analytics, a unit of the Aegis Group. That post followed four years with DoubleClick, where he climbed from the rank and file of DART sales staff up to VP of advertiser solutions, holding regional and national sales director posts along the way.

The new hire came as PointRoll announced plans for a Manhattan sales office. The company is based in Fort Washington, Penn.

Revenue Science picked up MarketWatch.com as a client of its Switched-On Audience Select behavioral targeting service. Beginning later this quarter, advertisers on CBS MarketWatch will be able to target ads to qualified audience segments independent of what page users are on.

“We plan to offer advertisers a package for virtually any audience they request,” said Scot McLernon, executive VP of sales and marketing for MarketWatch.com .

Interactive marketing firm IMN hired Laurence Stock as chief operating officer, Andrew Hatch as director of sales, and Elizabeth Darragh as director of marketing.

Stock has held CFO posts with The Reference, a privately-held IT consulting firm focused on financial services, and strategic consulting firm Benchmarking Partners, now Surgency. Hatch comes to IMN from Monster Worldwide, where he was most recently VP of new business. Darragh was formerly senior marketing manager with Genuity.

“The combined experience of these three executives with financing, sales, product marketing and strategic alliances adds considerable strength to our firm,” said President and CEO Kathleen Goodwin.

America Online named Lewis Taffer as executive VP of acquisition marketing and Lance Miyamoto as executive VP of human resources.

Taffer worked for 20 years at American Express, heading the Gold Card and launching the company’s Membership Miles program. He will handle strategy, development and implementation of all customer acquisition efforts through the company’s multiple channels.

Miyamoto joins AOL from LexisNexis Group, where he was senior VP of human resources.