Millennial Media, a leading independent mobile advertising platform, has made some executive-level changes this week, announcing the appointment of Mollie Spilman as the company’s new Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.   Spilman will be responsible for leading the company’s worldwide marketing, advertising and branding efforts, as well as the company’s business development efforts.

“Mollie has a proven track record of developing and executing successful marketing strategies that deliver results,” said Paul Palmieri, President and CEO, Millennial Media. “A rapid consumer shift to mobile has brought about a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and Mollie’s vision and strategic approach will play an essential role in defining the future of mobile advertising and allowing Millennial Media to grow our leadership position in the space.”

Spilman previously served as the Senior Vice President of B-to-B Marketing, Senior Vice President of Commerce and Yahoo!’s Head of Marketing for the Americas before becoming Yahoo’s Chief Marketing Officer prior to joining MM.  And before her life at Yahoo, she served as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Advertising.com, President and CEO of Three Stage Media, CEO of Tidal TV(now Videology) and has held other senior positions at media companies including Time Warner, Meredith Corporation, Discovery Networks and Phase2Media.

“Mobile monetization and the App Economy are changing the current media landscape as we know it,” said Spilman. “Millennial Media is at the center of this shift, and I look forward to helping the company drive the industry forward.”

Spilman will be based in Millennial Media’s Baltimore headquarters and will report directly to Palmieri.

Millennial Media has certainly gained a strong candidate with Spilman, who’s developed the chops to run a marketing-centric firm.  Millennial is of course a different beast, being a mobile ad platform, and has an opportunity to take Millennial to the next level.

The mobile ad network has fought to maintain its independence in a rapidly changing industry while its rivals were quickly snapped up by the likes of Apple, Google and AOL.  Millennial went public earlier this year but just after they closed their IPO, they were slapped with a patent lawsuit from mobile marketing service, Augme Technologies, for allegedly copying their mobile advertising platform Ad Life, which allows marketers, brands, and agencies to plan, create, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs which are targeted at specific groups without being device-biased.

Though Millennial’s IPO was strong, analysts estimated a loss of 5 cents a share before their second quarter report.  Though they lost $2.2 million, or 3 cents a share and their operating expenses nearly doubled, the number of outstanding shares nearly quadrupled in the past 12 months resulting in the operating margin increase to 39.7 percent from 39.1 percent.  Though the loss, they still managed to beat analysts’ expectations.