Changes at Bitly as New CEO Mark Josephson Joins and Chief Scientist Hilary Mason Departs for Accel

Mr. Josephson (Photo: Flickr)

Mr. Josephson (Photo: Flickr)

Bitly, the New York-based link-shortening and data analytics service, announced two big changes at the executive level this week. Yesterday, chief scientist Hilary Mason, who is arguably Bitly’s most visible employee, announced she would be moving on from the company to become the first ever data scientist in residence at venture firm Accel Partners. Though she’s been an advisor to Accel’s Big Data Fund since 2011, Ms. Mason is leaving Bitly to join Accel full time, where she will help to advise portfolio companies and evaluate potential investment areas.

Bitly, which is owned by New York’s favorite non-incubator Betaworks, also named a new CEO today to replace Peter Stern, who left the company in March to pursue “other interests.” Mark Josephson, who previously served as the CEO of Outside.in following its acquisition by AOL, will take the helm at a company which has struggled to shrug off its reputation as a simple link shortening service and be seen as an in-depth data analytics shop.

Interim CEO Sam Mandel told AllThingsD that Bitly is continuing to push its data products. “The Bitly data set has always been really robust, and now our focus is on putting an intelligence layer on top,” he said.

No doubt that mission will be more difficult now that Ms. Mason, who has served as the face of Bitly’s data capabilities, is on her way out.

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