More boardroom upheaval at Phorm

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 18 Dec 2008 at 12:13

Behavioural advertising firm Phorm is waving goodbye to another two executives - just weeks after losing three board members over "differences on the future direction of the company".

UK chief executive Hugo Drayton is leaving the company by "mutual consent" while chief financial officer Lynne Millar has resigned. Drayton will continue to work as an advisor for the firm.

A Phorm spokesman declined to comment on the reasons for the latest departures, but said the "backdrop to all of this is making the executive and the board much more UK-centric."

Three board members left the company earlier this month, citing differences of opinion with CEO Kent Ertugrul. They were replaced with former chancellor Norman Lamont and former Ofcom board member Kip Meek.

Today's leavers have been replaced by Nan Richards, previously president of Turner Broadcasting Systems Europe, who has been appointed deputy CEO. She's joined by Andrew Croxson as interim chief financial officer, while current Phorm commercial director, Nick Barnett, is promoted to the newly-created role of managing director.

BT rollout

The boardroom upheaval comes as Phorm prepares to roll out its Webwise system for the first time with BT.

BT revealed earlier this week that it "expects" to deploy Webwise following the completion of a public trial of the controversial system that involved up to 10,000 BT customers.

The service's commercial success will hinge on how many customers BT and Phorm can persuade to opt-in to the service. Commercial director David Sawday told PC Pro yesterday that the "company is confident we can make it work."