Eric Hadley, the former Microsoft Bing marketing executive who rubbed shoulders with celebs before being dismissed in an unusually public move by the Redmond company, has landed a new job with The Weather Channel Companies.
Media industry trade publication Cynopsis noted the move this week, saying that Hadley will move from Seattle to New York to take the job as the media company’s senior vice president of partner solutions and ad trade marketing.
Hadley’s marketing tactics for Bing included hosting celebrity-filled parties at major events, earning him the label “Microsoft’s Mr. Fun,” in a Daily Beast article that raised eyebrows inside the company.
Microsoft let Hadley and colleague Sean Carver go in March, saying that they were “terminated for violation of company policies related to mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement.”
Ad Age reported at the time that an investigation turned up “a list of violations” of internal Microsoft policies by Hadley and Carver — including some related to purchase orders for a three story “Bing Bar” at the Sundance Film Festival that hosted celebrities such as Drake, Jason Mraz, Paul Simon and Neil Young, with catered food and an open bar.
The investigation also involved Danielle Tiedt, a former Bing marketing general manager who took a job with Google’s YouTube in February.
