John Rizzi has resigned as president and CEO of e-Dialog, said Chris Saridakis, CEO of the global marketing services division of parent company GSI Commerce. Joe Gagnon, chief client officer and EVP of product marketing at the company, will replace him, effective immediately.
Rizzi had served as president and CEO of the Boston-based email and multichannel marketing service provider since 1999. Parent company GSI was acquired by eBay for approximately $2.4 billion on March 28.
“Rizzi was probably at the point where he knew there was a good transition that could happen,” said Saridakis. “He built the business to its point right now. He did a good job, but we needed someone who could expand the business further.”
When asked if Rizzi’s resignation had any relation to eBay’s acquisition of GSI, Saridakis said, “Absolutely none. We just announced eBay two weeks ago. He announced his resignation [internally] in February.”
Gagnon joined e-Dialog as chief client officer and EVP of product marketing in February. As president, he will help to create a comprehensive interactive marketing platform for GSI. This will include further integrating e-Dialog into other GSI global marketing services companies, including Fetchback, ClearSaleing, M3 Mobile Marketing and MBS Insight.
John Healy will fill a new position as CEO of GSI subsidiary MBS Insight. MBS president Lissa Napolillo will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the company, reporting to Healy.
Central Islip, NY-based MBS provides customer database marketing technology to large consumer retail brands. As CEO, Healy will be responsible for overseeing its growth strategy.
Healy has worked at PepsiCo and direct mail organization Advo. Before joining GSI, he was CEO of Dydacomp, a commerce technology services provider. He has also worked at RL Polk & Co., Equifax and DoubleClick.
GSI created Healy’s position because “his diverse background will allow us to broaden and add to MBS’ services [as well as its] management team,” said Saridakis. “[Healy is] the right guy to drive this forward.”
Healy and Gagnon will report directly to Saridakis. GSI did not use a recruiter to fill the positions, said Saridakis. “Marketing services is such a small community. I reached into my Rolodex, called a few people, and decided these were the guys,” he said.
GSI acquired sports merchandise retailer Fanatics for $277 million in February and advertising analytics company ClearSaleing for an undisclosed amount the prior month.
