AOL Snags Digg Exec Mike Maser

Digg’s Chief Strategy Officer Mike Maser is joining AOL as Head of Marketing for Consumer Applications.

This is the group led by former Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse, who sent out an email to his team about the hire. That email was forwarded to us:

Team,

It’s with much enthusiasm that I let you all know that Mike Maser has agreed to join us as the Head of Marketing for Consumer Applications. Mike comes to us from Digg where he was most recently the Chief Strategy Officer, leading all Marketing and Business Development efforts for the company. Mike will be based here on the West Coast, reporting directly to me but working closely with the teams in NY and Dulles on product positioning and messaging. In addition to leading our overall product marketing strategy and execution, he will also help to align our social media efforts across all products given his background and expertise on the subject.

While our marketing efforts will be Mike’s immediate priority, he will also spend part of his time on potential investment opportunities for AOL Ventures on the West Coast given his relationships and knowledge of the tech industry.

Mike will officially join the team next month and looks forward to diving right in on our product marketing strategy – especially given all the recent, positive buzz around our AIM, Mail, Mobile and Lifestream products.

Please join me in welcoming Mike and we’ll keep you all posted on his official start date.

Best,
Brad

Maser follows Digg’s former head of communications Kiersten Hollars to AOL. Hollars reported to Maser while at Digg.

Maser has been a bit of a utility infielder for Digg over the last several years. He was Chief Revenue And Strategy Officer until early 2009. And he ran the product group at one point, a job now filled by ex Google exec Keval Desai.