Sandpiper Hires New VP of Business Development

Scott Darling has spent years as a business consultant. Now his No. 1 tip for businesses will be to work with Sandpiper Networks of Thousand Oaks.

In his new role as vice president of business development and professional services for Sandpiper, much of Darling’s time will be spent building alliances with companies prominent on the World Wide Web.

He will be selling them on the idea of signing up for Sandpiper’s content delivery service, Footprint. Footprint is designed to assist Internet providers with distribution in a way that limits congestion on the Web.

“What I’m focusing on now is really going out into the marketplace and prioritizing partners we want to do business with,” Darling said. “We have a great opportunity to sign up partners who are hosting [Web sites], ISPs, other Web developers. They can sign up and we will be part of their network, or they can help resell Footprint to their customers.”

Founded in 1996, Sandpiper unveiled the Footprint system to a small group of Internet providers in 1997 and to the mass market in 1998.

The Footprint technology, available to Internet providers on a subscription basis, diverts Web content from congested channels to lines based close to the receiver. The system transmits information through 30 content distributors set up on 14 networks, choosing the least-congested available path.

Sandpiper has a network of more than 400 service providers. Its clients include E! Online, America Online, Intuit, NBC Interactive and WebRadio.com.

“This company and this strategy, in the marketplace they are in, is so perfect and so ripe I was really intrigued by it all,” said Darling, who spent 18 years with Arthur Andersen & Co., MCI/Systemhouse and Price Waterhouse.

Leo Spiegel, president and chief executive of Sandpiper, said that Darling’s experience in the business world is critical to his company.

“Scott has really worked for lots of high-end consultant services, and he’s been responsible for a lot of Web-enabled e-commerce,” Spiegel said.

“He understands what it takes to be successful in a start-up,” he said. “He’ll be responsible for spearheading a series of relationships and alliances we’re in the process of creating. We’re building a team underneath him of business development directors to put those relationships in place.”

Along with business development, Darling will expand Sandpiper’s outreach to its clients, helping customers with Web technology.