Yahoo said Tuesday that Kathy Savitt, former founder and CEO of social commerce company Lockerz, is joining the ailing Internet company as chief marketing officer, responsible for all worldwide marketing and branding.
Savitt will join the company on Sept. 14 and will report directly to Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer. In a message on Twitter, Mayer said she was “so excited to have landed Kathy Savitt as our new CMO at Yahoo.”
Yahoo said recently that Mayer, who took charge in July, is reviewing the company’s business strategy, which could lead it to change its plans to return to shareholders after tax cash proceeds from a deal with Alibaba Group. The announcement prompted speculation that Yahoo may keep the money to use it for acquisitions and product development.
Savitt’s extensive experience in “building and refining well-loved consumer brands like Amazon, American Eagle Outfitters and Lockerz will be incredibly valuable as we define Yahoo!’s future,” Mayer said.
A consumer, retail and technology executive with experience in strategic product development and marketing, Savitt was, before founding Lockerz, the executive vice president and CMO of American Eagle Outfitters. She has also held senior leadership roles at Amazon.com and was president of MWW Savitt, where she consulted with Fortune 500 clients across the globe, Yahoo said in a statement.
Mayer, a former high-profile Google executive, was in charge of Google’s Local, Maps and Location products, leading to expectations that she would boost product development at Yahoo. The company reported revenue and profit in the second quarter that was slightly lower than in the same quarter a year earlier.