Google SA boss quits for new ‘Africa-wide’ venture

South Africa’s Google boss, Stephen Newton, has quit to “pursue other entrepreneurial activities”, reports the company.

The news that the well-liked Newton is leaving comes as a surprise because he had been in the sought-after position for less than a year. Previous Google boss, Stafford Maisie, had been at the helm for just 18 months, reportedly resigning to spend more time with his family. There have been only two Google country managers in South Africa since the international search behemoth established a local office here about three years ago.

Newton told Memeburn that his new role could be described as “Africa-wide” and that the new company would make an announcement shortly.

Google spokesperson Julie Taylor told Memeburn that there were “already a couple of candidates in the pipeline” for the vacant position. Taylor said the company was looking for a local, South African, candidate to replace Newton — which had always been their long-term strategy.

Taylor said that Newton would be staying in South Africa to pursue his new venture because he has reportedly fallen in love with the country.

“We’re committed to the country in the longterm — and the business will be operating as normal. All our product launches will go ahead as normal — and we have a few exciting product launches in coming weeks,” said Taylor.

Newton is a contributor on Memeburn, where he recently wrote a piece on the “Future of search“.

Newton was part of the founding team of Hitwise UK. He also served as Vice President of DoubleClick’s Ad Exchange covering the Europe, Middle East and African markets (EMEA).

In a Google acquisition of DoubleClick, Newton took on the role of Head of Analytics and Commerce EMEA, where he was responsible for the Google Analytics product and growing the “third party analytics proposition”.

“We are looking for a South African candidate and Stephen is helping us. We have a couple of people in the pipeline, but we’d like to interview some more,” Taylor told News24 earlier.

She said that the job had not yet been advertised but prospective applicants could apply on the Google website.