Paul Sagan named Akamai chief

Akamai Technologies has named Paul Sagan, the company's president, as its chief executive. He'll fill both roles going forward. Sagan's promotion to the position of CEO had been expected since early January, when George Conrades stepped down from Akamai's top job and named Sagan his eventual successor.

Sagan, who has been Akamai's president since 1999 and also serves on the company's board of directors, is a former broadcast TV executive who once served as president and editor of Time New Media and as senior vice president of Time Warner Cable Programming. Sagan co-founded Roadrunner, an early entrant into the cable Internet market, and helped launch Pathfinder, one of the Web's first portal sites. Immediately prior to joining Akamai as chief operating officer in 1998, Sagan served as senior adviser to the World Economic Forum.