Google has lost another member of its executive team as chief information officer Douglas Merrill is leaving to join music company EMI.
EMI said today that as president of its digital music business, Merrill will head a new global function including digital strategy, technology and business development.
Merrill takes up his post on April 28 and will be based at EMI Music's Los Angeles offices in California.
The world's fourth largest music label, based in London, earlier announced plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs after being hit by online piracy, falling CD sales and a poor release schedule. The plan to rebuild EMI by boosting online sales has proved controversial with some of its biggest acts.
Merrill, who managed all internal engineering and technical support globally for Google, is leaving after four years at the Web search company. He functioned one level below Google's 14-member executive management group and was one of the 50 or so highest ranking executives at Google.
He is one of a small but growing trickle of senior managers to leave Google, a company that has had few executive defections in the years following its successful initial public offering in 2004 but has seen its momentum slow more recently.
