CHICAGO -

Tony Zolla has a background with technology enabling consumers to watch movies or purchase tickets. Now Cars.com is asking Zolla to bring his tech expertise to help dealers and buyers connect to move metal.

On Monday, Cars.com named Zolla as chief product officer, effective immediately. Zolla will be responsible for defining the company’s product strategy for both consumers and dealer customers, overseeing the development and launch of new products, and guiding the innovation of existing properties.

Zolla will report directly to chief executive officer and president Alex Vetter and will be based in the company’s Chicago headquarters.

“Tony is a widely respected leader in digital commerce who will utilize his broad understanding of consumer and marketplace behavior, coupled with deep technology expertise, to drive our consumer-first approach at Cars.com,” Vetter said.

“Tony’s excellent track record of leading product innovation and creating seamless experiences across web, mobile and retail store channels is aligned with our multi-channel approach and will enable Cars.com to help consumers win throughout the car ownership lifecycle,” Vetter continued.

Zolla comes to Cars.com with 18 years of progressive experience building and leading high-performance organizations at top consumer brands.  Most recently, he was senior vice president of product and customer experience for the $2 billion retailer Redbox.

Prior to Redbox, Zolla served as vice president of digital product management, user experience and technology at Ticketmaster, where he led global ecommerce product management, UX design, product engineering, and technical operations for the company’s marketplace offerings. While at Ticketmaster, Zolla was responsible for strategy and roadmap development for both B2B and B2C products.

Zolla holds a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a master’s degree in ecommerce technologies from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree in information systems from Loyola University Chicago.

“Cars.com is an innovator in digital automotive marketing that continues to lead the industry as a valuable resource and influencer in the car shopping journey,” Zolla said.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the team and look forward to delivering best-in-class experiences to Cars.com consumers and customers that are both fun and engaging,” he went on to say.