The Betawave Board of Directors and Management team has been garnering attention and accolades for years. Head of “Digital Agency of the Year.” Architect of Euromoney Deal of the Year. Top 10 Internet Executive You Can't Afford to Ignore. American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement. Check, check, check and check.
Tabreez Verjee, President and Director
Tabreez has been President of Betawave since 2007. He is a Founder and General Partner at Global Asset Capital, LLC, an investment firm with diversified interests in venture capital and private equity. In this capacity, he directed more than $500 million in committed assets across multiple venture capital funds and over 40 portfolio companies in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, Tabreez co-headed Sonique (IMDI) and successfully negotiated its sale for more than $70 million to Lycos. At 21, Tabreez founded and served as Managing Director of Global Entertainment Capital, which raised $150 million in capital for media financings and completed the first ever stand alone investment grade securitization of music royalties for heavy metal band Iron Maiden for $30 million. Tabreez started his career at Bain & Company and received a bachelor of science in Engineering with honors from University of California at Berkeley.
Tabreez is an early investor and member of the board of directors at Kiva.org, the world's first peer-to-peer microfinance platform, which has been heralded in the press for its innovation and has been featured on both the Oprah Winfrey Show and by Bill Clinton in his recent book on giving. He is also a charter member of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, a global, non-profit network dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship.
Mark Oltarsh, Chief Revenue Officer
Mark serves as Chief Revenue Officer of Betawave Corporation, an online media company that delivers the world's most attentive audiences to brand marketers.
Prior to Betawave, Mark was Vice President and Group Publisher of Bauer Publishing's In Touch Weekly and Life & Style magazines. At In Touch Weekly, the fastest growing magazine in the country, he increased ad revenue by over 150% over a three-year period.
Prior to that, Mark rose rapidly to sales leadership at Spin, Conde Nast's Details and Vanity Fair, and Dennis Publishing's Stuff and Maxim. His past two sales positions included responsibility for all digital revenue and major media deals in broadcast and print.
Before his career in media, he was a studio musician and published songwriter with a Hot 100 single to his name.
Mark lives in New York City with his wife Leslie and two boys, Julius and Townes.
Lori Macias, Vice President & General Manager
Lori is responsible for overseeing the company's business, sales and publisher operations, research initiatives, product strategy and corporate communications. Additionally, she works closely with members of the management team to ensure communication and coordination. Lori was a Co-Founder and former VP of SlingShot Media, a Los Angeles based company that collaborated with the professional entertainment community to develop, produce and distribute original programming online. Prior to SlingShot Media, Lori spent over five years at Yahoo! Inc. where she was responsible for the development of marketing programs and execution of all paid promotion on the Yahoo! Front Page. Over a two year timeframe, Lori effectively grew revenue on the product over 650%. Lori graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with honors and a dual major in Economics and Psychology.
Lennox Vernon, Chief Accounting Officer
Lennox has been Betawave's CAO since 2006 and brings over 30 years of successful financial and operations experience to the Company. Prior to joining Betawave, in 2004, he was Controller of Moderati Inc., a provider of high-impact mobile content to consumers and wireless carriers. Lennox also served as the Controller of two start-ups, Optiva Inc.and PaymentOne Corporation from 2003 to 2004. Prior to that, Lennox had operated at various high-level capacities, acting CFO, Vice President Controller and Corporate Controller at Fair Isaac, Macromedia, and Pixar respectively. Lennox graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science, and is a certified public accountant in the State of California.
David Lorié, General Counsel and Secretary
David joined Betawave in January 2008. In his role he is responsible for all company legal matters and also manages investor relations. David authors a monthly newsletter and blog on developments in the law that affect publishers and advertisers. Prior to joining Betawave, David served as general counsel for several technology companies, including Franz, a leader in the field of the semantic web, and DeRemate, which was a leading online auction company in Latin America prior to its sale to Mercado Libre (Nasdaq: MELI). David also served as general counsel for Amanco, which was sold in 2007 for $500 million to Mexichem (MXK:MEXCHEM). David began his legal career as a corporate associate at the San Francisco-based law firm of Morrison & Foerster. David received his J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law where he was a member of Law Review.
Matt Freeman, Vice Chairman
Matt has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement; is the Founder of the Interactive Agency Board of the IAB, is an active Board member of the Advertising Club and the American Association of Advertising Agencies and is a member of the Marketing Advisory Board of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
He founded and served as CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide, which he grew from 45 employees and $5 million in annual revenue to over 1,500 employees and $250 million in annual revenue while building a global network of 45 offices spanning 28 countries. In January 2006, AdWeek named Tribal DDB Worldwide its Interactive Agency of the Year and in January 2008, Adverting Age awarded it Global Agency Network of the Year. Both publications cited Matt's leadership as a critical factor in Tribal's enduring success.
In 1997 and 1998, Matt was Executive Creative Director Modem Media/Poppe Tyson (since then acquired by Digitas, Inc.; now a Division of Publicis Group). There, he led efforts on IBM & other key clients and was part of the merger integration team with Modem Media/Poppe Tyson. Before that, he was Partner, Executive Creative Director at Poppe Tyson (formerly a division of True North, now Interpublic Group) from 1995 to 1997.
Earlier in his career, Matt was a writer at MTV working on Beavis & Butthead and MTV Beach House and he was a private school English teacher. Matt is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the NY School of Visual Arts.
Jim Moloshok, Executive Chairman and Director
Throughout his career Jim has managed the intersection of technology and entertainment for some of the world's biggest media companies including Yahoo!, Warner Bros. and HBO and was named by TV Week as one of the "Top Ten Internet Executives You Can't Afford To Ignore."
Jim served as President of Digital Initiatives for Home Box Office where he was responsible for exploring new opportunities, focusing on innovative content and fast-changing technology. Before joining HBO, Jim was senior vice president, Entertainment and Content Relationships at Yahoo! building partnerships with movie studios, TV networks and producers. While at Yahoo!, the areas under his supervision included Kids, Movies, TV, Games, Sports, Health and News. Prior to joining Yahoo! Jim was president of Warner Bros. Online and president and CEO of Entertaindom.com, an original entertainment destination for Time Warner.
Under Jim's leadership, Warner Bros. was named by Variety as the "Most Aggressive of All Studios on the Web," and in its debut month, the independent Entertaindom eclipsed other more established entertainment sites. Warner Bros. Online was the first studio site to accept advertising and evolve into an online business with its own sales and marketing team separate from any other sales efforts of the company.
John Durham, Director
John has served on Betawave's Board since 2007. He is chief executive officer and managing partner of Catalyst, which specializes in connecting emerging technology companies, publishers and brand marketers facilitating the integration of paid media, non-paid media and emerging media. Prior to Catalyst, John served as President of Sales & Marketing for Jumpstart Automotive Media and on the Jumpstart Board of Directors, prior to its acquisition by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S in 2007. From 2004 to 2006, John served as the Executive Vice President, Business Strategy at Carat Fusion, for Carat's offices across the country including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Before that, he was a founder of Pericles Communication, a political digital firm that helped advocacy and political groups tap into interactive marketing.
In 2003, John was Chief Operating Officer of Interep Interactive which, under his direction became the largest independent online ad sales company in the United States, and through co-marketing agreements, the largest Internet rep company in the world. In 2000, John helped engineer the acquisition of Winstar Interactive Media from Mandalay Entertainment Group. John had joined Winstar Interactive in March of 1998 as Vice President of Advertising Sales. Prior to Winstar, John was the founding Sales Manager for Mapquest.com (Denver) which he joined in the fall of 1996. Before that, he was Sports Sales Manager for San Francisco’s KRON TV. John , a long-time resident of San Francisco, has been teaching advertising and marketing classes since 1992 and currently teaches advertising in the MBA program at the University of San Francisco. He also founded the Bay Area Interactive Group, an Internet industry-networking group. John has also handled the online advertising strategy for five victorious political candidates, including the President and four Senators.
Riaz Valani, Director
Riaz joined our board of directors in 2006. Riaz is currently a General Partner at Global Asset Capital, LLC, where he has worked since 1997. He previously served as Chairman of Viventures Partners SA and President of IMDI/Sonique. Riaz was a Managing Director of Global Entertainment Capital and was with Gruntal & Co. focused on private equity and asset securitizations. Riaz was one of the two investment bankers that engineered the acclaimed “David Bowie Bonds” which was awarded Euromoney’s Deal of the Year in 1997. Riaz also privatized Quorum Growth Capital, one of Canada’s leading publicly traded venture capital firms in a successful management led buyout. Cumulatively he has several billion dollars of transactional expertise across structured finance, real estate, and private equity. He has overseen portfolios of over fifty venture investments in technology, media, and telecom companies, and real estate investments in over twenty office and hospitality properties. He currently serves as a director of Maritz Properties, Inc., Avex Funding Corporation and is a Charter Member of TiE.
Michael Jung, Director
Michael joined our board of directors in 2008. Michael was part of the founding team of Panorama Capital in late 2005, where he is a partner. Panorama is the successor to the venture capital program of JPMorgan Partners, which Michael joined in 2003. Prior to working in venture capital, he was vice president of corporate strategy and development at the Exigen Group, an enterprise software and services company where he managed the company’s day-to-day business development activities. He also served as vice president of strategic corporate development at Ask Jeeves, leading the company’s mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnership efforts. Early in his career, Michael advised a variety of high technology companies both as an investment banker with BancBoston Robertson Stephens and as an attorney with Gunderson Dettmer. He holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Michigan and bachelor’s degree in political economy of industrial societies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mark Menell, Director
Mark joined our board of directors in 2008. Mark has been a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners since January 2000. From August 1990 to January 2000, Mark was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, including as principal and co-head of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group, in Menlo Park. Mark is also a member of the board of directors of GSI Commerce, Inc. (NASDAQGS: GSIC).
Richard Ling, Director
Richard joined our board of directors in 2008. Richard founded Rembrandt Venture Partners in 2004. Prior to co-founding Rembrandt, Richard was the founding CEO and Chairman of MetaLINCs Inc., an e-mail search and analytics company acquired by Seagate in 2007. Prior to MetaLINCs, Richard was the co-founder, President and CEO of AlterEgo Networks Inc., a wireless infrastructure company, acquired by Macromedia Inc. in March 2002. Before AlterEgo, Richard led the e-Commerce product organization at Inktomi, where he was responsible for overseeing all areas of the group’s engineering and operations, including site and network operations and product development. Richard was a co-founder, VP of Products and Engineering, and acting CTO at Impulse Buy Networks Inc., leading the development, operations and product management groups. Impulse Buy Networks was acquired by Inktomi in 1998.