Yahoo taps 30-year ad vet Rob Wilk as new head of sales
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Photo of Rob Wilk, Credit: Yahoo
Yahoo has hired Rob Wilk, formerly the head of Microsoft Advertising, as its head of sales across all of its major consumer franchises.
Why it matters: Yahoo is one of the largest consumer sites on the planet. The brand's growth challenge isn't finding more eyeballs — it's making more money off of the millions of people who already visit the site monthly.
- As of May 2024, Yahoo was the second-most trafficked web property in the world, according to Comscore — second only to Google.
How it works: In the newly formed role, Wilk will oversee advertising revenue across all of Yahoo's consumer businesses, including News, Sports, Mail, Finance, Search, AOL and Engadget.
- Wilk will work alongside Yahoo's general manager and chief revenue officer, Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, who oversees's Yahoo growing ad tech business.
- Wilk will report directly to Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone.
Catch up quick: Private equity giant Apollo Global Management acquired Yahoo in 2021 from Verizon.
- Apollo's investment, combined with a new management team, has helped supercharge Yahoo's business, even in the wake of a difficult climate for the media industry.
- Wilk comes to Yahoo after a brief stint leading ad sales at Snap.
- A 30-year veteran of the advertising industry, Wilk previously led advertising at Microsoft and Foursquare and had two stints at Yahoo.
What to watch: Wilk's hiring comes on the heels of a slew of new investments from Yahoo in its advertising tech division.
- Yahoo's ad tech division isn't yet profitable, but Lanzone anticipates that new investments in that business will soon become very accretive to the company's bottom line.
