eBay techie promoted to COO

NEWS Proving it's possible for IT people to make the leap to executive status, eBay's technology president, Maynard Webb, has been promoted to number two within the company. Webb has been made the new chief operating officer, replacing Brian Swette who left the job in January. Webb will also retain his title of technology president. Webb is credited with revamping eBay's website which was prone to downtime in the early days of the dot-com boom. His improvements have helped the business become the most popular auction site on the internet. He was in charge of the project which saw the site upgraded with a brand new network architecture implemented across 27 international websites. Prior to assuming his position as eBay's technology president in 1999, Webb was CIO at computer manufacturer Gateway. Since Swette left eBay, his job has been shared by a number of other executives.