Turn promotes Demas to CEO

Digital advertising network Turn promoted president and COO Bill Demas to CEO, effective September 10. Former chief executive Jim Barnett took the role of chairman. Demas is charged with growing both the company's client list and its technology offerings.

“Under my leadership, we plan to accelerate our investment in the technology platform and to invest in our advertising partners,” said Demas.

Demas' elevation comes as the company is expanding its business. The Redwood City, CA-based firm opened offices in Chicago and Los Angeles and expanded its New York office in the past year. It also increased its staff size by 50% during that time. Demas is overseeing all 60 employees.

Demas joined Turn's executive team last December. He has managed sales, publisher development, business operations and client services functions at the company, after joining its board of directors in 2007. Prior to joining Turn, Demas was the president and CEO of MokaFive, a desktop virtualization company. He has also held senior management titles at Overture, where he lead the company's search marketing network and oversaw business development, product management, marketing and professional services. He joined Yahoo after the search company acquired Overture in 2003. Demas has also held sales roles at Microsoft and at IBM.