Another Yahoo Exec Departs

If Lloyd Braun, former Yahoo exec in charge of juicing entertainment who left under a cloud, could poach a few execs from the troubled Internet giant, so can former sales head Wenda Harris Millard, who also left Yahoo earlier this year after a rocky goodbye with management.

She has apparently grabbed Vice President of Sales Strategy Jacki Kelley (pictured here), who one Yahoo wrote me “was one of the good ones.” It’s unclear what role Kelley will have at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where Millard landed this summer as its president of media.

[UPDATE: Kelley will be EVP of media sales for MSLO, running all sales for digital, magazines and broadcasting, a move that keeps her full-time in NYC. One reason she left: sources say Kelley was tiring of all the travel back and forth to Sunnyvale with all the Yahoo reorgs.]

Sources at the company said Kelley is not the only one taking off in the upcoming few weeks (and last week brought the departure of marketing head Cammie Dunaway to Nintendo and also longtime PR exec Joanna Stevens).

Here’s the late Friday memo from Yahoo Executive Vice President Hilary Schneider on the Kelley departure:

From: Hilary Schneider
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 8:33 PM
To: [XXX]
Subject: Sales Announcement

It is with mixed emotions that I am announcing that today is Jacki Kelley’s last day at Yahoo!. Since joining Yahoo! in May 2006, Jacki has led our advertising efforts for the travel category and has recently played an integral role helping to facilitate the integration of Yahoo!’s search and display sales teams. Please join me in thanking Jacki for her contributions to Yahoo!, and in wishing her the best of luck in the next chapter of her career.

To ensure a smooth transition, Jacki’s directs will report to [Dave Karnstedt] on an interim basis. The Advertising Strategy teams have done some great work, and our commitment to their efforts will continue unabated.

We’re making great progress on integrating the Sales Team, as well as with work we’re doing to ensure greater focus across the entire Global Partner Solutions division. The work we are doing now to align around customer needs will accelerate our ability to deliver the most value for our advertiser and publisher partners.

Thanks in advance for your continued focus.

Hilary

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