Web video service Babelgum has appointed its third chief executive. Chief marketing officer Stefania Valenti is replacing Valerio Zingarelli.
Zingarelli, in Babelgum’s statement to paidContent:UK says…
“I feel that an important phase of the Babelgum development has been completed successfully. My mission when I joined in July 2007 was to transform an ambitious but fragile start-up into an established company following best industry practices, respecting deadlines and meeting goals, with a very efficient cost structure and a distinctive content and channel strategy. I think that these objectives have been achieved”.
Funded by Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia, Babelgum was originally started up in 2005 with Erik Lumer at the CEO helm. But Lumer was swapped in 2007 for Zingarelli, in a move that prefaced the exits of the company’s chief technology officer, chief architect and chief operating officer.
Valenti became CMO the same year. She had previously run press relations at Scaglia’s FastWeb and her previous experience is all PR, though Babelgum says she “led the group’s IPO”.
In November 2009, the service opted to cut costs by closing its Dublin HQ and Nice office to consolidate at its London, Milan and New York offices; its New York-based executive vice president left.
Under Zingarelli, Babelgum has dropped its original desktop application for a Flash web player and has continued aggregating and commissioning what, for what many such sites, is unusual amount of original documentaries and more in the categories of film, music, comedy, earth and metropolis.