Wed, 08/17/2011 – 06:13 – PokerPages Staff

PokerStars continues to strengthen its position as the online poker market leader after announcing the arrival of former Microsoft Executive, Alex Payne.

Payne will become PokerStars’ new Chief Marketing Officer. Payne’s appointment ends an exhaustive eight month long search for the candidate who will oversee all aspects of PokerStars’ consumer marketing.

Payne will undertake a huge number of responsibilities as part of his new role including the “the company’s brand and advertising, TV programing productions and media buying, online marketing including paid search, organic search, social media [and] regional customer relationship management.”

Payne worked for Microsoft for over a decade and has been at the forefront of its most recent innovations including the creation of an industry standard for online ads in the United States. He also launched Windows 7 in Europe in 2009. “I’m delighted to be joining PokerStars. I am joining an outstanding business, which is the clear leader in its category and has enormous potential ahead of it. Moreover, it’s a product in which I have a huge personal passion,” Payne said in a press release on Tuesday.  Payne has also spent time working for other advertising agencies prior to Microsoft including EHS Brann and OgilvyOne.

PokerStars is currently the world’s largest poker site with a 24 hour peak of 52,000 players competing in cash games. The site also sponsors a selection of the most renowned names in poker including Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom.