Dulles, VA — AOL today announced that Maneesh Dhir will lead the company's international operations as Executive Vice President, reporting directly to AOL President and COO Ron Grant. In this role, Dhir will oversee the growth of AOL's international portals and review new overseas business opportunities in Europe, Asia and the Americas, working from the company's offices in Bangalore, India.
Dhir has a wealth of experience at AOL, most recently as Senior Vice President and Country Manager in India. There, Dhir led all of the company's operations, including technology development, back-office operations, and call center operations. Prior to that, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Netscape in Mountain View, CA. Earlier in his career, he was on the management team of a startup that was later bought by Netscape, and he served in various technology and business roles at Sun Microsystems.
In addition, AOL announced that Dana Dunne will serve as head of AOL Europe, reporting to Dhir. Dunne has worked in several European countries for most of the past 15 years, most recently as president of Belgacom, a $10 billion telecommunications company in Belgium. He was also president of US West International, and was one of the leaders of McKinsey & Company's telecommunications practices, working from London, Brussels and Madrid.
"AOL is in a terrific position to grow internationally, and with Maneesh and Dana, we have a leadership team that can expand our global presence as an advertising-supported Web company," said Ron Grant, AOL President and COO.
AOL also announced today that Philip Rowley has decided to retire from his role as Chairman and CEO of AOL Europe. Under Rowley's leadership, AOL Europe moved into profit in 2003, and Rowley played a key role in the 2006 sale of the AOL's access businesses in the UK, France and Germany. Philip will work over the next few months with Dhir and Dunne to ensure an orderly transition.
"Philip was instrumental in turning our AOL Europe business around, and he positioned AOL Europe as a growing, ad-supported Web business," said Grant. "We are grateful for Philip's important contributions to the success of AOL, and wish him all the best."
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