B&N Hires eBay VP of Global Search, Microsoft Scoops Yahoo Search Experts

[eBayNews]

Barnes & Noble hired eBay's Vice President of Global Search, Jamie Iannone, as its Executive Vice President of Shopping, Barnes & Noble.com and Barnes & Noble Digital.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has hired Yahoo's former Vice President of International Search, Yongdong Wang, as well as Yahoo's former Chief Architect, Knut Risvik, who is a former Google director and will become a partner architect on Microsoft's search platform and infrastructure, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog.

According to Barnes & Noble, Iannone will be responsible for meeting the buying needs, and shaping the shopping decisions, of visitors to Barnes & Noble.com. Among other things, his focus will be on optimizing the online shopping experience for the millions of Barnes & Noble customers, as well as managing various new business opportunities and other strategic initiatives. Mr. Iannone will report directly to William Lynch, President of Barnes & Noble.com.

Mr. Iannone joins Barnes & Noble from eBay, where he was the company's Vice President of Global Search. Previously, he was the Vice President of Buyer Experience, responsible for all aspects of the customer experience. He first joined eBay in 2001 and has held a variety of senior positions from product marketing to merchandising and vertical categories. Prior to working at eBay, Mr. Iannone held positions at Microsoft, Primedia Ventures, and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Iannone graduated as the Pyne Prize Scholar from Princeton University with a degree in engineering and management and received his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He was featured in an interview in AuctionBytes last June, where he discussed eBay's global finding platform.