Microsoft names Corporate Vice President Amy Hood as its new CFO, replacing outgoing Peter Klein
Microsoft has named Amy Hood, its Corporate Vice President, to succeed Peter Klein as its Chief Financial Officer.
Hood has been with the software company for more than a decade and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for the company’s Business Division (MBD). In this capacity, she oversaw all the unit’s financial strategy, management, and reporting.
In this role, she was accountable for just $24.1 billion in the division, so now she’ll be responsible for quite a bit more. It should be noted that Hood was also involved in the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer, specifically influencing the company’s strategy development and the overall execution.
She previously worked in the Server and Tools group before running strategy and business development within MBD. Eventually she became the unit’s CFO in January 2010.
“I’m excited to step into this role and look forward to working closely again with our investors and shareholders. Peter has built a world-class finance team, and I am set up well to continue the company’s strong discipline around costs and focus on driving shareholder value.”
Last month, during Microsoft’s fiscal Q3 2013 earnings, the company noted that Klein will be stepping down from his position. He had been CFO for the past four years, with a total of 11 years in the company. It was revealed that Klein’s replacement would be named from within Microsoft’s financial leadership team soon afterwards.
Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Excerpt from: Microsoft names Corporate Vice President Amy Hood as its new CFO, replacing outgoing Peter Klein
How The Internet May Have Increased Young Marriages 14%
As millions of 20-somethings defy the age-old tradition of young marriage for another decade of baby-less romance, one study suggests that the Internet is responsible for boosting holy matrimony 14% among 21-30-year-olds. In a deliciously dry economic assessment of romantic partnering, University of Montreal Professor Andriana Bellou finds a surprisingly strong relationship between broadband Internet penetration, dating website use, and youngins gettin’ hitched. “Exploring sharp temporal and geographic variation in the pattern of consumer broadband adoption, I find that the latter has significantly contributed to increased marriages rates among 21-30 year olds,” she writes [PDF].
Two graphs, in particular, help explain the boost in digitally facilitated permanent hookups (the first figure is a poll of spouses the second figure the linear trend between broadband and marriage)
Econometrics For Novices
How do we know these marriages wouldn’t have happened anyways, regardless of whether residents had Internet access? Internet service providers roll broadband around the U.S. for mostly business purposes, provided that local bureaucrats don’t make deploying it a regulatory nightmare. Unless regulators were snuggling with young lovers as they teased their marriage intentions with each other, there’s no reason to believe broadband deployment was following regions ripe for lots of marriage.
So, if we see a see a spike in marriage rates in only states with ubiquitous broadband penetration, the Internet is probably playing some role (econometricians call this an Instrumental Variable). Of regions with similar composition in race, socioeconomic status, population density, unemployment, and age, the author finds the Internet is associated with a sizable 13-30% boost in first-time marriages.
The Hottest Marriage Talk You Can Handle
Readers can imagine how an available pool of hot-and-heavy eager singles facilitates marriage, but the way in which an economist describes romance may just be the hottest thing ever. Nestle an ice-pack between your legs, because this is NSFW.
1. Dating sites increase the chance you’ll find your one true love.
“In a basic infinite horizon search model, individuals search for suitable marriage partners and receive offers drawn from some known distribution. Search continues until a partner is found whose “quality” equals or exceeds an endogenously determined reservation value…Standard search theory predicts that, all else equal, higher search costs lower the reservation value and increase the probability of marriage”
2. It’s hard to meet people in a new city.
“In an offline, decentralized environment searching for a suitable partner can be a lengthy process accompanied by uncertainty regarding match quality and psychological costs associated with personal encounters and potential rejections. An online centralized marriage market instead has the potential to resolve a number of these issues. This is because it allows for targeted search along certain desirable characteristics while the users retain a degree of anonymity”
3. Sometimes, a girl just needs to be asked.
“greater exposure to potential mates will increase the frequency of offers and therefore the likelihood of marriage”
4. Yo, it’s a sausage fest out there.
“The potential of the Internet to affect matching is probably the greatest for those perceived as facing thinner markets or those who experience difficulties in meeting potential mates”
A Word of Caution
A few cautionary notes before we all hail Match.com as the savior of the institution of marriage.
First, these are a percentage of a percentage. Marriage rates increased about 5% for 21-30 year olds, but it went from 0.36 to .412, or a 14% relative increase. This jibes with a 2005 Pew Poll which found that 5% of all marriages began online.
Second, this study says nothing of the quality of the marriage. As I personally investigated, hyper-focused romantic searchers are a mixed blessing. Sometimes we find that the person we thought we wanted is actually the worst possible match.
The truth is, the Internet is probably playing some role in boosting marriage. Speaking as a guy who is part of the new 20-something trend of moving away from home and delaying domestic life to focus on career, online dating helps me sort through the sea of strangers. Now, if it could only make those first dates a little less awkward. Get on it, Internet!
Here is the original post: How The Internet May Have Increased Young Marriages 14%
Former Google AdSense Director, Kim Malone Scott, Leaves Dropbox After Just Four Months
We’re hearing from those familiar with the situation that Kim Malone Scott, an ex Apple and Google employee, has left Dropbox after about four months on the job. Upon her hiring, she was described as a “top sales exec” poach for Dropbox. At Google, she was commonly referred to as the “High Priestess of the Long Tail,” a name she had given herself because she placed ads on pages that normally didn’t have them, mostly for small publishers.
During her tenure at Google, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had called Scott’s credentials a “perfect Googler’s resume.”
According to her LinkedIn, Scott worked in “Operations and Online Sales” for Dropbox, with no other details or information about her role. With two years at Apple and six years at Google, it was clear that the hiring was an important one at the time.
Recently, Scott shared her professional story and journey on the site for Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” giving the advice:
Never be afraid to call bs, especially when it’s sexist bs.
We’ve also heard that this could have been partially a personal decision and one having to do with culture issues. We’ve reached out to Dropbox for comment and will update our story once we hear back.
View post: Former Google AdSense Director, Kim Malone Scott, Leaves Dropbox After Just Four Months
With IPO Possibly On Deck, Eventbrite Hires eBay And Yahoo Veteran Mark Rubash As CFO
Eventbrite, the event planning and ticketing platform, has hired Silicon Valley veteran Mark Rubash to serve as its first-ever CFO.
Rubash has served in high-profile financial roles for some 20 years. His most recent high-profile CFO role was at Shutterfly, the publicly-traded photo-sharing company where he headed up financial operations from November 2007 to February 2012. His resume also includes time as a Senior Vice President of Finance at Yahoo, and the VP of Finance and investor relations at eBay.
Eventbrite, which has raised some $76 million in venture capital, has been quite vocal in the past about its intention to eventually hold an IPO. Hiring a CFO with public company experience such as Rubash is often seen as a smoke signal of sorts from a privately-held company that a public offering is more clearly on the horizon. Last year, Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Kevin Hartz reportedly told an audience at a conference that the company’s “next capital raise will be an IPO.”
In a press release announcing the appointment, Rubash is quoted as saying, “Having had the opportunity to work with eBay and PayPal in their formative years, I’m extremely excited to help build on Eventbrite’s success thus far and accelerate the adoption of its platform by event organizers throughout the world.”
This is the second bit of big news we’ve heard from Eventbrite in recent days: Last week, the company announced it has crossed $1.5 billion in gross sales and 100 million tickets sold. And the growth seems to be accelerating: $600 million of those sales and 36 million of those tickets were completed in 2012 alone.
Here’s a bit more about Rubash, from Eventbrite’s announcement:
“As the senior member of eBay’s Finance leadership team from early 2001 through late 2005, he had global responsibility for all eBay Finance, Investor Relations, Accounting, Tax, Treasury and Facilities functions. At Yahoo!, Rubash had global Finance responsibility for the company’s paid search and display advertising businesses as well as its core ecommerce properties. In addition to his significant industry experience, Rubash spent nearly 20 years in the public accounting profession-serving clients in a broad range of industries. During his eight-year tenure as an audit partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rubash served as the Global Leader of the firm’s Internet Industry Practice and the Partner in Charge of its software practice in Silicon Valley. Rubash currently serves on the Boards of Intuitive Surgical, Iron Planet and Line 6, and has also served in executive roles at HeartFlow, Rearden Commerce and Critical Path.”
See the rest here: With IPO Possibly On Deck, Eventbrite Hires eBay And Yahoo Veteran Mark Rubash As CFO
Former Wired Editor Thomas Goetz Takes EIR Role At Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Thomas Goetz, the former executive editor at Wired Magazine who stepped down after more than a decade at the trailblazing tech publication late last year (weeks after the departure of longtime Wired chief editor Chris Anderson), will announce today that he has taken on two new roles — keeping one foot in journalism, and one foot out the door.
Goetz will assume an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) role at the health-focused philanthropic organization Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He’ll also be joining the TheAtlantic.com as a blog correspondent focused on “big ideas in technology and healthcare.” His first post for the Atlantic went up today.
As far as the EIR role, in a personal blog post to be published today announcing the news, Goetz says that he will spend much of his time working with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer program. He explained:
“Here in Silicon Valley, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence are typically affiliated with venture capital firms, working to evaluate portfolio investments and hatch new companies. At best, they’re interim positions that end up producing something exceptional. My role with the RWJF is modeled on those posts, with a few differences befitting a non-profit foundation rather than a VC firm.”
He elaborated a bit in a comment to TechCrunch, saying:
“Over the past couple months, I’ve been talking to many EiRs in the Valley about what they do, and it seemed like an great role to bring to RWJF. I’m confident some amazing projects, hopefully TechCrunch worthy, will come of it!”
Goetz moving more firmly into the world of next-generation healthcare after more than 15 years in journalism should actually not come as too much of a surprise to those familiar with his work. He went back to school in 2005 to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley, and much of his recent reporting has focused on health and related technology — personal genomics, cancer screenings, and the like. More recently, he wrote a book about the future of healthcare called “The Decision Tree” in 2010, and his TED talk on redesigning medical data has garnered some 300,000 views.
There’s no doubt that health and healthcare are increasingly hot areas in the tech industry, and more innovation is on the way. It will certainly be exciting to see what Goetz cooks up in the future, now that his job is to both write about newsworthy products and initiatives, and create them himself.
Link: Former Wired Editor Thomas Goetz Takes EIR Role At Robert Wood Johnson Foundation