Personify names key e-commerce exec as chief

Love Goel will take over immediately as chief executive of Personify, a Web marketing software maker, the company said.

He is former chief operating officer of the e-commerce business unit of Federated Department Stores, which owns Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Bon Marche, Stern's and Burdines.

Before Federated's $1.7 billion acquisition of direct-marketing giant Fingerhut last March, Goel was chief operating officer at Fingerhut.

In less than a year, Goel helped grow Federated-Fingerhut's online business through acquisitions, investments and development, increasing annual revenues by more than 900 percent to $200 million, Personify said in a statement.

Goel also expanded the company's e-commerce division from 15 workers to 500.

Personify competes against other Internet-based marketing software developers including Epiphany and Net Genesis. Founded in 1996, Personify's applications allow companies to do real-time tracking of customer information gathered during Web site transactions.

Goel, who will assume his new post immediately, replaces Eileen Gittens, who will remain a consultant to the San Francisco-based company.

Prior to joining Fingerhut, Goel held consulting and management positions at Prudential, Apple, MCI WorldCom and Deloitte Consulting, the company said.