Comings and Goings

Baldwin Louie — Mon, 31 Jul 2000 18:00:00 -0400

When we first started Comings and Goings nearly two years ago, the Internet industry was a nascent field in which people were recognized as the most important asset. So we put people center stage in this column. In my final report (it will resume under a new name and writer in the future), we review the past and chronicle a few recent moves.

Since its inception, Comings and Goings has tracked the growth of the Internet industry by watching a core group of industry pioneers - like the founders and execs at Wired and Modem Media - as well as old-economy celebrity types who have converged onto the scene.

If nothing else, working on the Net is not for the weak at heart. Some companies went through turnover at the top, or turnover at the bottom. The industry on the whole suffered a fallout, as employees unlocked their golden handcuffs and started their own companies - or, more recently, were abandoned by their employers during layoffs or company shutdowns.

Some companies couldn't keep their recruiting practices out of the news. Amazon.com (AMZN) poached from Wal-Mart and the retail giant didn't like it, responding with a lawsuit. At the center of the suit was Amazon CIO Richard Dalzell, a former Wal-Mart executive who had been recruited by the mammoth e-retailer in the summer of 1997. Fourteen additional Wal-Mart staffers were pulled into Amazon.com and Drugstore.com, an Amazon investment. Both sides settled out of court and no one lost a job over it, but it unsettled Wal-Mart. The company finally announced plans for its own Internet venture last year, naming former Banana Republic CEO Jeanne Jackson as CEO.

When Lou Dobbs left CNNfn and started Space.com, he became the subject of news instead of reporting of it. He took some staffers with him, but he couldn't keep 'em. Among the first out the door: former president Rich Zahradnik, who had been VP of interactive at CNN. He's now heading his own startup, Goalnetwork.com. When asked about the Space.com departures, Dobbs replied simply: "I am without question a demanding boss."

Aspiring-musician site Tonos also had troubles at the top. Founded by singer-songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, Tonos hired a high-profile CEO in former GeoCities CFO Steve Hansen last fall, and then replaced him with former iCast and MTV exec Matt Farber, well into its prelaunch phase in January. The switch raised the question many dot-coms face: Do you hire an executive from the offline legacy field, or aim for extensive Internet experience?

The stars came out for the Net in the form of well-known, accomplished professionals, undoing the notion that the new industry was managed by amateurs. Webvan snapped up a new CEO in Andersen Consulting (ACN)'s George Shaheen, a gregarious fellow whose optimism delayed the company's IPO when he broke SEC rules by making forward-looking statements to investors.

First-generation Internet stars founded second companies: Marc Andreessen of Netscape started Loudcloud in late 1999, and Sky Dayton of EarthLink is now heading Los-Angeles-based incubator eCompanies.

The entertainment industry has had its own drama, as with the now-defunct Digital Entertainment Network (dossier)'s overpaid execs. Likewise, Warner Bros.' site Entertaindom's underpaid executives left after Time Warner (dossier) restructured their options packages in light of merger plans with AOL. The three who left, president Jim Moloshok, executive VP Jim Banister and VP Jeff Weiner, surfaced in Tinseltown gossip recently, linked to former Warner Bros. cochair Terry Semel. Moloshok and Weiner joined Semel at Windsor Media, his venture capital firm.

Hollywood has also gone dot-com, with actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starting entertainment venture LivePlanet. Cindy Crawford, Melanie Griffith and Jennifer Aniston have lent their names and efforts to eStyle, OneWorld and Voxxy, respectively.

And now for the latest job changes. After 16 years as global leader of McKinsey & Co.'s Electronic Commerce and Strategy practices, John Hagel, author of the bestselling books Net Gain and Net Worth, has teamed up with CNET (CNET) founder Halsey Minor and Scient and Viant (VIAN) founder Eric Greenberg in their new $100 million incubator, 12 Entrepreneuring, which is backed by Benchmark Capital (dossier). Hagel joins as chief strategy officer. Also joining this star-studded management team to build 12's "knowledge base" is former Xerox PARC director John Seely Brown, who remains at Xerox as chief scientist and a corporate VP.

Launch.com hired former EMI executive Briggs Ferguson as executive VP, product strategy and marketing. ... Jim Clark's MyCFO appointed to its board of directors Peter Solvik, senior VP and CIO of Cisco.

Send job gossip to ptraylor@thestandard.com.

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