Netcentives Inc. yesterday named Eric Larsen to the newly created position of president. Larsen, formerly president of direct marketing agency Impiric, New York, will take over the day-to-day duties of the loyalty programs provider on Jan. 3.
Larsen also will be responsible for developing corporate strategies. He is charged with helping the Netcentives, San Francisco, achieve sales of more than $100 million in 2001 and guiding it to profitability by the fourth quarter.
Larsen will report to West Shell III, Netcentives' chairman/CEO.
Larsen takes over at a time when Netcentives is embroiled in at least three lawsuits. The company has sued nearly every player in the online loyalty market, claiming they have infringed its patents to distribute points on the Web.
In February, Netcentives sued Sperry & Hutchinson Co. Inc. and WebMiles.com Corp. for patent infringement. Sperry & Hutchinson has since signed a licensing agreement with Netcentives.
This year, the company has added MassMedium.com Inc., R2K LLC, Pointsurf.com Inc., Telamerica Media Inc., Carlson Cos., Beenz.com, Passpoints Inc., Freeride.com Inc. and Stario Inc. to its infringement lawsuit.
