Execs & Accounts for April 28, 2004

Digital Impact hired Michael Gorman to head its expansion into search marketing. At Mitchell Madison Group, a global professional services company, Gorman led a division serving the media and communications industries. He also served as senior VP with ESPN, developing inventory management technologies.

Susan Bratton has left her post as VP of marketing and sales with Mailblocks to join broadband media company Maven Networks. Earlier Bratton served as senior VP of marketing and sales for the @Home Network’s media business, launching the company’s broadband advertising group in 1996. She also founded rep firm Cendara. She will open Maven’s Silicon Valley office.

“Susan will help Maven to define and deliver the next level of broadband video applications to brand marketers,” said Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven Networks.

Maven also hired Gretchen Fleming as VP of finance and operations. Fleming was CFO and treasurer for MediaMap, which she joined from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mailblocks CEO and WebTV founder Phil Goldman died in December 2003.

The Weather Network has expanded its AdManager license with Accipiter to accommodate increases in traffic to its Web site and a corresponding rise in ad inventory. The new license will allow the Canadian weather network to serve up to 120 million ads per month, compared to the 22.5 million supported under the original license.

HighBeam Research hired Joseph McWilliams as VP of advertising. McWilliams joins the recently launched online “research engine” from online ad pioneer Hoover’s, where he was VP of advertising and e-commerce sales and led sales teams in Austin, New York and San Francisco. HighBeam Research has garnered 250,000 members in its first eight weeks.