—Cheezburger continues to layer on all sorts of new executive toppings as the Seattle online humor network looks to reposition itself and grow its audience of seven million monthly unique visitors.
The latest addition is Cyrus Krohn, a former Microsoftie who previously co-founded Crowdverb, which was acquired by WPP Group. Krohn will serve as executive producer, overseeing the Cheezburger editorial team. He’ll report to president and COO Scott Moore, the former Slate publisher and MSN vet who joined the company last month. Krohn also worked at Slate, joining as the online publication’s first employee. And he spent time in CNN’s Washington, D.C. bureau producing Crossfire and Larry King Live, where he worked with comedians including Dennis Miller and Tim Allen.
“Cyrus is talented. And funny. This is the kind of skill set and cultural fit we’re looking for on the Cheezburger executive team,” said CEO Ben Huh in a release. “He’s going to unleash our team’s creativity to grow and entertain our audience.”
—Apple has hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to oversee the iPad and iPhone maker’s retail efforts. The 53-year-old plans to join the company next spring. “I am profoundly honored to join Apple in this newly created position next year, and very much look forward to working with the global teams to further enrich the consumer experience on and offline,” said Ahrendts in a release. “I have always admired the innovation and impact Apple products and services have on people’s lives and hope in some small way I can help contribute to the company’s continued success and leadership in changing the world.” As All Things D reports, Apple has churned through some execs in the retail ranks in recent years. More in this report on GeekWire.
—Demand Media, the operator of sites such as eHow, Society6 and Cracked as well as the domain name registrar service eNom, announced that co-founder, chairman and CEO Richard Rosenblatt has resigned. Co-founder Shawn Colo has stepped into the interim CEO role of the publicly-traded Santa Monica, California company, which also has a large presence in Kirkland where its eNom unit is located. In fact, Demand Media is in the process of spinning off the domain name services business, though it did not provide details this week on when that might occur. “I realize that all journeys must ultimately come to an end and want to wish Shawn and the entire team success as they continue to grow the business,” Rosenblatt said in a release.
—Former Microsoft principal developer Carlos Brito has joined the startup Addappt, the mobile address book startup. Brito previously worked on Outlook and Windows, having spent about 15 years at Microsoft. “This is very exciting for us since we are a self-funded company and to see someone leave a comfortable ‘safe’ job to take the leap and join us in our cause, says a lot,” said CEO and co-founder Mrinal Desai. Brito worked closely with Addappt Jorge Ferreira at Microsoft, and Desai calls him a “brilliant programmer.”
—Apptio, the Bellevue-based maker of enterprise software that informs CIOs how much they are spending on IT, has named Alex Shootman as president of worldwide field operations. Shootman, who most recently worked at Oracle as vice president of Eloqua Global Sales Unit, will lead Apptio’s global sales and services functions. “It’s rare to find a company that has fundamentally changed the way business executives get more value from their technology,” Shootman said. “Apptio has done an amazing job so far, and we’ll need to leverage our people, our partners and our ecosystem to continue creating wildly successful customers around the world.”
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