E-commerce services firm Digital River has a new CEO

David Dobson

Digital River Inc., an e-commerce service and technology provider, has hired David C. Dobson as CEO.

He takes over for chairman Thomas F. Madison, who served as interim CEO after the departure late last year of Joel Ronning, who left the job he’d held since 1994. Two retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide report using Digital River for web hosting: Microsoft Corp., No. 74, and Philips Electronics N.V., No. 341.

Dobson comes from CA Technologies, where he was executive vice president and group executive, global lines of business, for the information technology software and services firm, Digital River says. Before joining CA in 2010, Dobson worked as president of Pitney Bowes Management Services, a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. He also was executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer for Pitney Bowes. Previously, he was CEO of Corel Corp., which sells software for design, printing, editing and offices.  He also held management jobs at IBM Corp.

Madison will continue as Digital River’s non-executive chairman.

“With an extensive background in software and technology, David has successfully developed products and solutions for cloud-based environments, led innovation initiatives, and built businesses around comprehensive outsourcing models with rich partner ecosystems,” Madison says. “This expertise, combined with a proven track record of increasing revenues and profits for high-tech enterprises with worldwide customer and employee bases, makes him an ideal match for Digital River.”