Ektron Lands an Endeca Wizard

February 28, 2012

This shift from Oracle Endeca to Ektron was an interesting move. Unlike the jump of Daniel Tunkelang from Endeca to Google to LinkedIn, Tim McKinnon’s departure sparks goose curiosity.

Ektron, a company that focuses on customer’s digital experiences on various Internet media channels such as websites and social network sites, has recently hired former Endeca Chief Technology Officer, Tim McKinnon, as their new CTO. According to the recent PRNewswire report in a dead tree denizen, the Sacramento Bee reported“Tim McKinnon Joins Ektron as Chief Technology Officer”, McKinnon’s responsibilities will include product innovation and technology strategy. As the report summarizes, McKinnon’s experience make him the ideal candidate to help Ektron’s technology and growth initiatives, explaining:

Prior to Oracle/Endeca, Tim held the chief technologist role in the Digital Marketing Platform Group at Microsoft, where he led strategic development for Microsoft’s search and web content management initiatives. He joined Microsoft via the acquisition of FAST Search & Transfer, where he spent 10 years in a variety of engineering leadership roles.

The article also quotes McKinnon as saying:

Ektron’s vision and execution for a web content management and digital marketing nexus is unmatched….Customer experience is a top priority for executives and marketing teams, and I look forward to helping Ektron customers and partners to capitalize in this area.

Considering his background and successes in working with industry leading companies such as Endeca and Microsoft, we have no doubt that McKinnon will contribute to a bright and prosperous future for Ektron.

However, Ektron is a Microsoft centric outfit I think. The loss of two CTOs suggests that the technology challenge at Endeca may be more significant than I assumed. With the largesse of Oracle and its super fast hardware, Endeca should be in digital hog heaven. Now another farm looks more attractive. Anyone ever been to a farm, a real live working farm?

Stacey Duwe, February 28, 2012

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.