Weather Channel chief executive David Kenny is joining the board of Boston’s SessionM, a mobile advertising start-up that was co-founded last year by a former Apple Inc. executive.

Kenny, who became The Weather Channel Companies chief executive earlier this year, is a familiar name in local and national technology circles. He served as president of the Cambridge Internet infrastructure giant Akamai Technologies Inc. for a year until he resigned in October, 2011. At the time, Kenny was reportedly seeking the top job at Yahoo Inc., the troubled Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company. Yahoo recently hired Marissa Mayer away from competitor Google Inc. as its fifth chief executive in about four years. Kenny became a Yahoo board member in April 2011.

Kenny said in a release that he was attracted to SessionM because it is “distinctly positioned in this high-growth market.”

The young company, co-founded by Apple veteran Lars Albright, has developed a mobile ad platform; The Weather Channel is a customer. Albright joined Apple after the Cupertino, Calif., company bought Quattro Wireless, another mobile tech start-up that he co-founded in 2006. Apple paid $275 million in 2009 to acquire the Waltham firm.

So far, SessionM has raised $26.5 million from venture capital firms, including Highland Capital Partners in Cambridge.