Alexander Gounares joins AOL as CTO

AOL has picked up former Microsoft exec Alexander Gounares

AOL has announced that it has poached a former technology adviser to Bill Gates just one week after ex-Microsoft executive Bill Veghte joined HP.

Alexander Gounares starts this week as a member of AOL's global executive operating committee, and will play a major role as chief technology officer in driving strategy at the company.

Gounares will report to AOL chairman and chief executive Tim Armstrong, and will be based at the company's Dulles, Virginia campus.

"I am delighted to welcome Alex to AOL's global leadership team. Alex is a world-class technologist and has proven leadership experience in the development of global consumer and business platforms for the internet," said Armstrong.

"Alex brings deep experience in our strategy areas, as well as meaningful experience in strategy and corporate operations. We are looking forward to Alex joining the AOL team and ushering in the next phase of AOL's technology platforms."

Gounares said that he will look to reignite development in all areas of AOL's business, particularly engineering, software and content.

"Our goal together will be to harness the power of software to deliver on the enormous promise for AOL in its core areas of content, advertising and consumer applications," he added.

Gounares was corporate vice president of corporate strategy at Microsoft, and succeeds Ted Cahall at AOL.

He will have his job cut out though. AOL recently announced plans to sell its ICQ chat service and close down or sell social networking site Bebo as it tries to rejuvenate the business.