Execs & Accounts for May 14, 2004

Nick Hynes, who recently left a post as managing director and president of Overture Europe, joined up with U.K. SEM firm Web Site Promotion Services (WSPS).

“We are delighted to have Nick on board, his amazing profile and breadth of experience within consumer marketing initiatives will be essential in leading WSPS to global growth,” said WSPS Managing Director David Harrison.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) picked up Verizon SuperPages.com as a sponsor. SuperPages.com joins a list of SEMPO sponsors that includes Overture Services, Google, and GO TOAST. Sponsorship fees fund research and educational initiatives.

PointRoll added two publishers and an agency to its “included” network of Web sites that offer its units at prices equivalent to banners and simple Flash ads. New included members are publishers Business Week Online and iVillage, and marketing firm Alloy.

The McClatchy Company made several new appointments at Nando Media, its interactive operation. Christian Hendricks, VP of interactive media for McClatchy, assumed the additional role of president for Nando. Nando VP of Customer Service Fraser Van Asch was promoted to executive VP and general manager. And Brian Kirlik, VP of product development, was given additional oversight of Nando’s customer service operations.

Integrated PR and marketing firm Neale-May & Partners hired Lisa Bergamo as SVP in its Palo Alto office. Most recently, she was co-founder and VP of marketing at Iteration Software.

Enterprise search player Convera hired Steven Samowich as chief operating officer. Samowich recently served as VP of the government business unit at OpenText Corporation, prior to which he was CEO of Infodata Systems.