Two days after his departure from Fingerhut Cos., William J. Lansing has been named CEO of NBC Internet Inc.
Lansing, who was chairman/CEO of Fingerhut, has been charged with the day-to-day operations of General Electric Co.-owned NBCi. His responsibilities also cover financial operations and growing the company via alliances, partnerships and acquisitions.
“This was my decision [to leave Fingerhut and Federated],” Lansing said. “NBCi is an incredible company with incredible assets.”
NBC Internet includes online properties like the NBCi.com broadband portal launched last month, NBC.com, Xoom.com, NBC Interactive Neighborhood at nbcin.com and snap.com.
Lansing quit Fingerhut on March 23, the same day Federated Department Stores Inc. named Jeffrey Sherman to the chairman/CEO's post at Federated Direct. Sherman was president of Bloomingdale's department store chain.
“Because I left the company, there was an opening there — and so they put Jeff in,” Lansing said.
A veteran of GE, online marketer Prodigy Inc. and McKinsey & Co., Lansing sits on the board of numerous Internet companies. He was named chairman of Fingerhut in May 1999, a year after he joined the company as president. Federated bought Fingerhut in March 1999.
