Former Vice President and General Manager at Acxiom Brings Over 16 Years of Experience Leading High-Performance Organizations in Marketing, Software & Technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – ChoiceStream, the premier personalization service provider for the world’s largest retail and entertainment brands, including Tesco, Overstock.com, Borders, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, and AT&T, announced the appointment of industry veteran Darin Hicks to the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Hicks joins ChoiceStream from Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company, where he served as Vice President and General Manager. Hicks will play an integral role in leading ChoiceStream into performance-based, online advertising, helping the company bring the power of its personalization technology to the advertising market.
“Darin has tremendous experience in managing and growing multiple business lines in markets that are critical to ChoiceStream, most recently in marketing data management systems,” said Steve Johnson, co-founder and CEO of ChoiceStream. “We are pleased to have Darin join ChoiceStream at such a momentous time for our company. Darin will play a critical role helping lead the continued growth of our global personalization and advertising businesses in 2009, and for years to come.”
While at Acxiom, Hicks led an aggressive growth plan for the insurance, high technology and health businesses. He oversaw the development of new products and the growth of Acxiom’s largest global clients in its fastest-growing businesses, leading the company to a top 10 spot in American Banker’s FinTech 100 technology provider rankings. Prior to joining Acxiom in 2004, Hicks was founder and president of Software Leadership Services, a management consulting company providing operating expertise to early stage software companies. Previously, he spent nine years at Trilogy Software in key leadership positions, driving growth from $5 million in revenue and 12 employees to approximately $250 million in revenue with nearly 1,000 employees. Hicks graduated from Stanford University with a degree in industrial engineering.
“I’m excited to be joining ChoiceStream. The company provides the retail industry with cutting-edge personalization technology that drives greater sales and better relationships with their customers,” said Darin Hicks. “The organization is coming off of a successful year, and our new advertising solution positions the company for tremendous growth. I look forward to leveraging my experience to help ChoiceStream develop great relationships in the retail industry, deliver solutions that drive the best value for our customers and build a fantastic place to work.”
About ChoiceStream, Inc.
ChoiceStream delivers dynamic, personalized product recommendations and display ads that increase purchases and customer engagement for today’s biggest brands, including Overstock.com, Tesco, Borders, Blockbuster, AT&T, and Yahoo!. Recently named the company with the “deepest experience of the ‘pure-play’ personalization engines” by a leading independent research firm, ChoiceStream enables retailers to put the right content and products in front of the right people at the right time to maximize the value of every interaction with consumers.
