Lockerz CEO Kathy Savitt named Yahoo CMO

Savitt is a former executive at American Eagle and Amazon

Marissa Mayer has been the CEO of Yahoo for over a month now, and she is hard at work shaping the company into her vision. She took a big step toward that goal today, appointing a new chief marketing officer, the first one the company has had since the beginning of the year.

Kathy Savitt, founder and CEO of social commerce website Lockerz, will be taking over the role of CMO at Yahoo, it was announced on Monday.

Prior to founding Lockerz in 2009, a website that now boasts more than 45 million unique users, Savitt had been executive VP and CMO of American Eagle and a senior executive at Amazon.

“We are very excited to welcome Kathy to Yahoo!,” Mayer said in a statement.

“Her 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.”

Savitt will begin her new job on September 14th. She will be Yahoo’s first CMO since Elisa Steele left the company back in December.

Mark Stabingas, COO at Lockerz, has been tapped to replaced Savitt as CEO.

Mayer as CEO

Mayer took over as CEO of Yahoo on July 16, after the departure of Scott Thompson, as well as the entire board of directors, following a resume fudging scandal in May.

Since taking over, Mayer, who was the first female engineer at Google, has made a few moves to get the company back on track following the scandal.

Earlier this month, Mayer ordered a review of the company’s business strategy, specifically looking at what to do with $7 billion the company made by selling off half of its stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba back in May.

When Yahoo first announced that it would be selling the shares, it was reported that the company would be returning the money to its shareholders. Mayer put those plans on hold, possibly in order to refocus on investments in search and communications, or share repurchase and restructuring.

Savitt is the third hire Mayer has made during her brief reign. Her first two hires were both from Google.

Mayer brought in former Google product marketing manager Andrew Schulte to be her new chief of staff. Mayer also hired Anne Espiritu, who ran consumer technology PR for Google, to handle corporate communications.

Mayer’s next hire will most likely be for a new COO.

Yahoo stock was down 0.2% in after hours trading on Monday, ending at $14.82.

 (Image source: articles.businessinsider.com)