Key People
Management
Anand Subramanian, CEO
Mr. Subramanian is a technology entrepreneur and innovator who founded ContextWeb, creators of the online advertising exchange ADSDAQ, in 2000. His vision was to develop an easy-to-use ad exchange that brings together advertisers and publishers to enable mutually beneficial advertising transactions. As CEO, Mr. Subramanian directs all aspects of ContextWeb's business and operations. This includes building and managing a team of technology innovators, sales, marketing, operations, product management and new product development. He also has an extensive background in technology sales and delivery and a proven track record of corporate leadership.
Before joining ContextWeb, Mr. Subramanian was Vice President of Product Development at Gobi, Inc., a provider of accessible home computing and Internet connectivity. From 1996 through 1999, he managed a team of technology consultants and sales staff at iGate Capital, an IT and finance/accounting staffing resource company, with responsibility for major accounts including AT&T, Bellcore and MCI. In the early 1990s, Mr. Subramanian built and ran a successful healthcare software business in Bombay, India. He is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology, digital media and the convergence of the two. He has recently spoken at "Think Tomorrow~Today," ThinkPanmure's 2008 conference, The Upstream Group's Seller Forum, iMedia Communication, Inc.'s Agency Summit, Red Herring's "Always On" Conference, and he was also a finalist for The Metro New York Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2008 Awards.
He received his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in 1992.
Shanthini Sarkar, CPO
Mrs. Sarkar comes to ContextWeb, creators of the online advertising exchange ADSDAQ, from Gobi, Inc., a provider of accessible home computing and Internet connectivity, where she was the Assistant Director of Client Experience responsible for timely order fulfillment and efficient customer service. At Gobi, she also served as Project Manager, overseeing the design, implementation and rollout of the in-house order management system. Mrs. Sarkar's earlier positions included Lead Software Developer at Sapient Corporation.
She is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology, digital media and media convergence and has recently spoken at Magazine Publishers' Association (MPA) event "Ad Networks and Exchanges: Building Brands Online," appeared at OPA's 2008 London: "Forum for the Future," and was featured on a panel at Wimlink's first event: "Dream Big: The Future of Women in Media" event.
Mrs. Sarkar holds a B.S. degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University and a M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Jay Sears, EVP Strategic Products & Business Development
Jay Sears is EVP, Strategic Products and Business Development at ContextWeb, creators of the online advertising exchange ADSDAQ. Mr. Sears is responsible for bringing new products to market as well as developing key strategic relationships that drive audience and revenue acquisition.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Mr. Sears was SVP Business & Strategy Development for EDGAR Online from 1997 to 2004 where he drove the strategy that took the company from an under $1 million entrepreneurial business to a publicly traded NASDAQ company. He created over 300 partnerships including ones with Yahoo!, The Nasdaq Stock Market and Microsoft. Prior to EDGAR Online, he served as VP Marketing for Wolff New Media, the subject of Burn Rate by Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff. Mr. Sears regularly speaks at industry conferences such as Search Engine Strategies, PPC Summit, PubCon, ad:tech and CIMA and has been quoted in publications such as Jack Myers Report, MediaWeek, Inc Magazine and many others.
Mr. Sears received his BA in political science from Kenyon College in 1989.
Robert Daniel, SVP Sales and Publisher Development
Before he joined ContextWeb, creators of the online advertising exchange ADSDAQ, in 2006, Mr. Daniel worked at Advertising.com for over six years, most recently as Director of Strategy. At Advertising.com, he started as an analyst and was promoted numerous times into various sales and sales management positions. Mr. Daniel's team grew revenue by over 1,200% in 4 years and they were instrumental in selling Advertising.com's branding and behavioral suite of products. Prior to his work at Advertising.com, he was a financial analyst at AT&T.
David Peterson, SVP Technology
Prior to joining ContextWeb, creators of the online advertising exchange ADSDAQ, in 2007, Mr. Peterson provided CTO consulting services to both large and mid-size companies. From 2000-2005, he was CTO of Unicast, a rich-media internet advertising services company; and from 1989-1999, as R&D Manager, he transformed the R&D group of the Associated Press from a cost center to a revenue center by designing products for internal usage and commercial resale.
In addition, Mr. Peterson was a technology executive at Xplus1 (formerly Poindexter Systems), a pioneer in the online advertising predictive marketing technologies, and Armanta, a financial software company. He started his career at ITT (now Alcatel) as Lead Architect on their technology team.
Mr. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Stephen Krikelis, VP Operations
Stephen joined ContextWeb in 2006 and brings many years of operations and analytics experience in the online advertising industry. His areas of expertise include managing advertiser delivery and optimization, organizing new product launches and successfully communicating to the technology team the current and future needs of advertisers and publishers.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Stephen was the Director of Network Analytics at Direct Revenue, a contextual advertising firm, where he streamlined inventory management, set network pricing and successfully maximized the overall network monetization. Before that, Stephen held the position of a Financial Analyst at Thomson Financial and a Business Operations Manager at About.com.
Stephen holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from Boston University.
Rajiv Kewalramani, VP Product Architecture and Development
Rajiv joined Contextweb in 2006, bringing with him over 15 years in development and architecture of software products.
Prior to joining Contextweb, Rajiv was with icarz, inc. where he architected and developed next generation products for the company. Rajiv has also led several full lifecycle projects for financial and retail clients including Moodys, Nymex, and Halmark.
Rajiv has a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and is currently enrolled at the Stern Business School, New York where he is pursuing an MBA.
Biff Burns, VP Marketing
Biff brings over 25 years combined experience in marketing, advertising, branding and corporate communications. His background in marketing and online advertising qualify him to lead the ContextWeb Marketing Department with responsibilities for corporate and product branding, PR, publisher growth, sales support and other duties for the ADSDAQ™ exchange.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Biff spent 7 years as VP of Marketing at Burst Media in Boston. Before Burst, Biff held the title of VP of Corporate Communications, where he managed the day-to-day ad agency relationship for the corporation and 7 Strategic Business Units. He is currently a member if the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and has been a Board member of The Boston Ad Club, Junior Achievement of Massachusetts, a member of the Ad Management Committee of the Association of National Advertisers, the Boston Interactive Marketing Association.
Biff holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Northern Colorado.
Derek Brinkman, VP Product Management
Derek comes to ContextWeb with 7 years of experience in designing, building, and successfully marketing web applications aimed at a mass market audience. His knowledge of user-driven interaction design makes him an ideal leader for the ADSDAQ product line as ContextWeb widens its strategic focus to include the fat tail of both the Publisher and Advertiser markets.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Derek worked at Register.com, Inc., a domain name registrar and web hosting company, where he was the Director of Product Management. Derek joined Register.com when it sold only domain names, and he built out the web hosting product line which included the do-it-yourself site builder WebSiteNOW!, technical web hosting, and a full-service professional site design service. Derek also led a major project to completely redesign the user experience of the purchase funnel and the account management system at Register.com.
Derek holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Anthropology from Columbia University.
Ryan Becker, VP Platform Sales
Ryan brings over 8 years of business development and management experience working with media and technology companies. He is recognized for his contributions at early stage companies, helping turn venture backed concepts into proven business opportunities.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Ryan was responsible for creating distribution channels for the parent company of Undertone Networks, focusing on media partnerships with some of the largest online publishers. Ryan has also worked at two start-up technology companies, XDrive Technologies and 3Path, Inc. where he was responsible for strategy planning and business development. Ryan graduated with a BA in Political Science from the University of Washington.
Board of Directors
John Fisher
John H. N. Fisher is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. On behalf of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mr. Fisher serves on the boards of Airprism, Cambridge Innovations, CMI Marketing, Entegrity Solutions, SafeView, Selectica (NASDAQ: SLTC), and Visto. He served on the boards of C2B until its acquisition by Inktomi (INKT), Convoy before its acquisition by Neon/Sybase (SY), Medior until its acquisition by America OnLine (AOL), RightPoint before its acquisition by E.piphany (EPNY), Webline until its acquisition by Cisco (CSCO), and Soundview Technology Group (SNDV) before its acquisition by Charles Schwab Corp (SCH). He was also an investor in Software Quality Automation (SQAX) before its acquisition by Rational Software (RATL). In addition, Mr. Fisher serves on the board of DFJ ePlanet Ventures, on the Investment Committee of DFJ New England, and on the board of Azimuth Trust Company. Previously, Mr. Fisher worked at ABS Ventures, where he was responsible for much of the firm's investment efforts in computer software and services. In addition to his venture capital experience, Mr. Fisher gained investment industry experience at Alex. Brown & Sons and Bank of America. Mr. Fisher graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ross Goldstein
Ross H. Goldstein is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures based in New York City. Ross is DFJ Gotham's representative on the boards of Mimeo.com, Inc., Lumeta Corporation, 422, Inc., ContextWeb, Inc. and Practical Engineering, Inc. Prior to co-founding Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures, Ross was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Interactive Imaginations, Inc., one of the East Coast's first Internet companies, and the predecessor company to 24/7 Media, Inc. Ross helped manage Interactive Imaginations through the challenges of the early Internet industry and eventually toward its successful merger and IPO as 24/7 Media. Prior to joining Interactive Imaginations, Ross was with Morgan Stanley for 13 years, where he was a senior banker responsible for equity financings for the firm's technology, telecommunications and media clients. He also serves on the Board of Directors of New York Cares, a non-profit volunteer service organization based in New York City. Ross received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics-Economics, magna cum laude, from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Conor Mullet
Conor Mullett is a co-founder and General Partner of Updata Partners. Since joining the Updata team in 1999, Conor has been actively involved in building the Updata Partners organization and partnering with entrepreneurially driven, high-growth IT companies. Conor is currently involved as a director and advisor with Updata portfolio companies Management Dynamics, Getpaid, eSecurity, Netkey and Acclaris. Prior to joining Updata, Conor was a Senior Vice President with William E. Simon & Sons, a leading NJ & CA based private equity firm where he focused on developing the IT investment strategy. At Simon and earlier at GE Capital, Conor participated in over 30 initial venture capital and private equity investments and follow-on acquisitions and divestitures. Conor currently serves on the New Jersey Technology Council's Venture Advisory Board and is a founding board member of the Jersey Angel Network. Conor received his MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from the College of William and Mary.
Shanthini Sarkar
View bio above.
Anand Subramanian
View bio above.
Marshall Cohen
Marshall brings over 25 years of key management experience to ContextWeb. Ranging from the early days of MTV Networks and its meteoric rise to the summit of youth cultural consciousness to extensive consulting and advisory services, Marshall provides unique and valued experience to ContextWeb.
Marshall is Member/Partner of the Pilot Group and serves in an advisory capacity to several media companies including The Oxygen Network, Interactive Media Measurement, Inc. and OTX Research, among others. Marshall was most recently Senior Vice President at AOL Time Warner and originally joined America Online, Inc. in 1998 as Senior Vice President of Brand Development. From 1992-1998, Marshall was President of Marshall Cohen Associates, an entertainment and media research and consulting company and prior to that venture, Marshall spent 12 years at MTV Networks where he won a Clio Award in 1984 for the famed "I Want My MTV" advertising campaign. Marshall earned his BA in Speech Communication from the Pennsylvania State University, and taught undergraduate courses in Speech Communication at the University of Florida while working on his Masters and Doctoral degrees at Florida.
Wenda Harris Millard
Wenda Harris Millard is Co-CEO and President, Media, of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Ms. Millard oversees MSLO's media businesses, which include Publishing, Internet and Broadcasting. Before that, she was with Yahoo!, where she served as Chief Sales Officer since October 2001. At Yahoo!, she was responsible for driving the North American sales of the company's advertising and marketing services initiatives and leading the North American sales organization. Ms. Millard was formerly Chief Internet Officer at Ziff Davis Media and president of Ziff Davis Internet, Executive Vice President and one of the founding members of DoubleClick, where she was responsible for establishing the DoubleClick brand and overseeing the operations of DoubleClick Media. Before joining DoubleClick, she held senior level positions at SRDS, Family Circle, and Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek magazines, among others. In addition, Ms. Millard is Chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Ad Council. She is past president of the Advertising Club of New York and former chairman of its foundation. She was named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement, the highest honor given to advertising professionals 40 and under.
Ms. Millard holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Trinity College, where she has received both the Gary McQuaid Award for Excellence in Business Leadership and the Alumni Achievement Award.
News & Blogs
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Swine Flu and the Contextual Marketing Opportunity
May 7, 2009 - 0 comments
News: Real-Time Bidding API from ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange
Apr 29, 2009 - 0 comments
ADSPACE, Microsoft Write-Up on State of Contextual Panel
Apr 24, 2009 - 0 comments
Ad Age Ad Exchange and Ad Network Guide is Out and ContextWeb is in It
Apr 21, 2009 - 0 comments
Wooooo! The ad:tech Award Goes to…. ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Buying Desk
Apr 21, 2009 - 0 comments
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