Rival execs move to AOL

America Online, a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, says it has appointed a former Walt Disney executive and a former Gateway executive to key positions. Janet Scardino, who was managing director for the Disney Channel Italia and previously held a 10-year tenure at MTV, was named senior vice president of international marketing for AOL. The Dulles, Va.-based company also named Peter Ashkin president of product strategy, where he will be responsible for developing unified products and services across a broad range of devices and home Internet appliances. Ashkin spent two-and-a-half years at Gateway, where he was responsible for the development of products and technologies. AOL Time Warner's Turner Networks also named a former NBC entertainment chief to a newly created post at Turner Networks. Garth Ancier, who NBC ousted last year when the network's ratings fell into a downward spiral, was appointed to be executive vice president of programming.