The appointment comes as MSN gears up to fight Google for its crown as the internet search destination of choice and convert some of the millions of users visiting its sites into paying customers.
Gibbons, a former Hewlett-Packard UK marketing chief, will be responsible for co-ordinating the portal's marketing efforts.
She will pay particular attention to marketing its subscription services, which include its MSN 8 premium service and MSN Mobile, which enables customers to receive Hotmail messages on mobile phones. Take-up has been slow across the world.
Her appointment marks the first time that global marketing for MSN has been taken out of the US; the role is on a roaming basis.
Microsoft is ploughing up to £3bn into the development of a revamped search engine, which it hopes will end Google's dominance.
MSN UK has shuffled its marketing team as part of a restructure. There are three divisions: revenue, reach and subscriptions. Group marketing manager Matt Whittingham is head of information services and reach, with marketing manager Tracy Blacher taking most of the marketing responsibility.
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