Canoe Ventures Appoints Kathy Timko as COO

Canoe Ventures--the company that is implementing Project Canoe, the US cable industry's initiative to create a national unified platform for interactive and addressable advertising (it is backed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House)--announced Tuesday that it has appointed Kathy Timko as chief operating officer, effective June 1st. According to the company, Timko, who reports to CEO, David Verklin, has served in key management roles and board positions in both start-up and mature high-tech companies for the past 15 years, and has extensive experience managing and scaling organizations, building products and infrastructure, and expanding businesses to meet market needs.

Timko was most recently COO of carrier services at IDT, where she was responsible for pricing, profit optimization, business metrics reporting and operations. Prior to that, she served as COO of IDT Telecom, overseeing the unit's retail and wholesale businesses and its product management, technology, engineering and other operations. Her tenure at IDT also saw her serving as CTO of IDT Telecom, as EVP of technology for IDT Corp., and as COO of the company's engineering and operations division. She began her career at IDT in 1998 as VP of engineering and operations, and joined IDT Telecom's board in 2001. Prior to joining IDT, Timko worked as EVP of development and operations at Call Sciences, a start-up that was developing personal number services. Her resume also includes stints working on communications and software systems for Bellcore, and working on military projects for Bolt, Berenak and Newman. "I am pleased to announce that Kathy is joining our team," Canoe's Verklin said in a prepared statement. "Her successful career in managing and scaling high-tech organizations will serve us well during this critical time as we continue to expand our team, build our platform, and develop and deploy our first products."

Timko--who currently serves as an independent director on the board of Motionbox, a provider of online personal video-sharing services--holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an MS in computer science from Boston University.