Usama Fayyad to join Adknowledge as a Chief Scientist

Since leaving Yahoo, Fayyad was involved in a venture capital fund aimed at start-ups in the Middle East, and founded Open Insights LLC, a Bellevue, WA-based data and business intelligence consultancy.

Former Yahoo Exec Fayyad Resurfaces At Start-Up

WSJ.com, Oct 21, 2010 By John Letzing

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)--Former Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) senior executive Usama Fayyad, who left the Internet giant amid an exodus of top talent in 2008, will become chief scientist at Internet advertising start-up Adknowledge Inc.

A representative for Adknowledge said Fayyad's appointment will be announced early next month.

Fayyad, formerly Yahoo's chief data officer, joined the company in 2004 and left it as it was drawing heat for deflecting a sizable buyout offer from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and facing difficult questions about its future.

Since leaving Yahoo, Fayyad, a data-mining expert, has been involved in a venture capital fund aimed at start-ups in the Middle East, and founded Open Insights LLC, a Bellevue, Wash.-based data and business intelligence consultancy.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Adknowledge, founded in 2004, raised $48 million in venture capital funding in 2006. The company, which now has about 300 employees, operates an online advertising network that deploys predictive technology to tailor ads for particular Internet users.

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