Meet our team – we know technology is only as innovative as the people behind it.
Leadership
Board of Directors
Investors
Reggie Bradford, Chief Executive Officer back to top>
Founder and CEO Reggie Bradford brings nearly two decades of technology leadership and experience to Vitrue, the company he founded in 2006. Vitrue provides Fortune 1,000 brands a comprehensive social media marketing approach, delivering cost-effective solutions for marketers to connect with consumers in social ways by empowering consumers to help build brands through their online actions. The company boasts a growing roster of customers that represent some of the world's leading media companies and consumer brands.
Bradford's leadership experience spans 18 years in the consumer packaged goods, Internet and television industries. Prior to Vitrue, he was president and board member with TANDBERG Television, an organization of more than 400 employees and over $100 million in revenues. In his 14-month tenure, he led the company to a 40 percent annual growth rate, successfully integrated two major acquisitions and led the global repositioning of the brand.
Bradford also served as the president and CEO of N2 Broadband, the leading provider of open-platform, on-demand entertainment solutions. During his tenure, N2 Broadband grew annual revenues from less than $1 million to more than $35 million in just under five years. The company, which achieved cash-flow profitability during the same period, boasts a customer roster that includes the world's top 10 cable operators and the world's leading entertainment companies. Bradford was named one of Television Week's "10 to Watch" for 2005.
Prior to joining N2 Broadband, Bradford served as Chief Marketing Officer at WebMD from 1998 to 2000. During his tenure there, the company grew from 40 to 4,000 employees and received more than $2 billion in funding. While at WebMD, Reggie was instrumental in defining interactivity on the web as an early pioneer of social communities. WebMD later became one of the world's leading Internet destinations with over 38 million unique visitors a month. He previously held various marketing and management positions with Miller Brewing Company, a subsidiary of Phillip Morris.
Bradford received a BBA in Finance from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Emory University. He and his wife Holly have six children.
Jim Anderson, Chief Operating Officer back to top>
Jim Anderson is Vitrue's Chief Operating Officer. Anderson has nearly 20 years of experience and a successful track record of leading development teams to collaborate with sales, marketing, and other constituents to deliver successful consumer applications. At Vitrue, he guides the company's software team through the rapid implementation of its next generation of products and services.
Prior to Joining Vitrue, Anderson spent nine years with EarthLink (formerly MindSpring), one of the nation's leading Internet Service Providers. He helped the company grow from 250,000 subscribers to more than 5 million. His most recent role was Vice President of Product Development, and in that capacity he led a variety of application development, core infrastructure, QA, and other teams to develop many of EarthLink's customer-facing applications: Web mail, account management, the personal support center, and the Total Access client software. He also maintained responsibility for EarthLink's authentication and mail infrastructure.
While at EarthLink, Anderson also held VP of Broadband and Director of Marketing Programs positions. He led the launch of MindSpring's consumer DSL product, a service that as part of EarthLink grew to over one million customers.
Prior to joining EarthLink, Jim spent eight years as an engineering consultant, working with the manufacturing arm of consumer brands such as Procter & Gamble and Georgia-Pacific. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from Georgia Tech.
Erika Jolly Brookes, VP of Marketing back to top>
Erika joined MindSpring Enterprises in 1995 as employee 47 when the company had 10,000 dial up Internet customers located in a handful of local southeastern markets before eventually going public in 1996 and expanding to a national footprint in 1998. She was the vice president of consumer products and services and launched leading edge initiatives such as Spaminator, a search distribution deal, banner advertising and broadband via DSL. The company merged with EarthLink Networks in 2000, and Erika played a critical role as senior marketing executive in charge of brand strategy growing total awareness to 60% of US HH and growing EarthLink’s base to 4.8M subscribers. She led the launch of dial competitive features such as Pop Up Blocker and Accelerator. In addition, between 2004-2006 Erika had product, marketing and sales responsibility for growing revenue from add-on services by $60M over 4 years. Lastly, Erika ran all aspects of marketing from 2007-2008. Erika joined Jungle Disk (a division of Rackspace) as vice president, sales and marketing in March 2009. A cloud-based backup and file sharing service, Erika re-launched the brand, web site and product suite targeted at small to medium-sized businesses. The company achieved 250% growth in Q4 and Q1 as a result of an integrated social media and traditional pr communications strategy. In addition, Erika held product marketing and product management positions with Sterling Software and Iterated Systems, Inc between 1991-1995.
Erika is involved in a variety of start up initiatives in Atlanta including Start Up Weekend, Start Up Riot and Start Up Chicks. Erika received a BS in Business Administration from Berry College and has completed post-graduate executive level education in the areas of finance and marketing.
Max Clark, VP of Business Development back to top>
Max Clark is Vice President, Business Development. Max brings an impressive track record of building client relationships and structuring strategic partnerships while continuing to drive revenue. Max leads the business development and sales team responsible for cultivating relationships with executive level leadership through our agency, publisher, and marketer clients.
Prior to joining Vitrue, Max was Director, Business Development for UGENmedia, where he focused on building client relationships around UGENmedia’s user-generated marketing platform. With Fortune 500 marketers, Max delivered custom programs, working through the entire sales funnel from identifying campaign goals, concepting tactical ideas, and structuring solutions that ultimately lead to successful social media campaigns. Prior to UGENmedia, Max worked in the healthcare sector in both sales and marketing capacities, including opening up a new market and building a client base from inception. Max thrives on working in start-up environments, where he can forge new relationships, shape business objectives and grow revenue.
Max received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with a focus on Economics and Finance from Rockhurst University in Kansas City. Based in our NYC office, Max still has close ties to the Midwest, with a love of barbeque and anything that has to do with a Jayhawk.
J.B. Kropp, VP of Channel Partnerships back to top>
J.B. Kropp serves as Vice President of Channel Partnerships for Vitrue. Considered a leader in interactive marketing and consumer-generated media, Kropp brings almost 15 years of product, operations and strategic-leadership experience to Vitrue. A former Vitrue employee, he served as Vice President of Strategic Development from 2006-2008.
Prior to rejoining Vitrue, Kropp was an executive with ShareThis, the company known for the social-sharing tool that now reaches more than 400 million users across 130,000 sites on the web. During his more than two years at ShareThis, J.B. led the product strategy and distribution efforts helping pave the wave for the company’s notable growth and success.
Kropp was a co-founder of one of the first online video sharing communities, Sharkle.com, which was acquired by Vitrue in 2006. He was also a founding member of internet advertising pioneer Flycast Network, which completed a successful IPO and was later acquired by CMGi.
Additionally, Kropp also helped launch Web Visible (formally SME Global Solutions), and, most recently, co-founded the first consumer-generated recipe sites Cucina.com.
A native Cincinnatian, Kropp spends much of his free time helping to promote and assist local start-up businesses incubate their ideas.
Kropp holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Denison University and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Starfire Council of Greater Cincinnati, Starfire U, UGIVE.org, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Foundation, and the Xavier University Williams College of Business Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association and an Advisory Board member for CoupSmart, LLC and ShareSomeSugar.com.
Michael Strutton, Chief Product Officer back to top>
Michael Strutton is Vitrue's Chief Product Officer. Mike brings over 15 years of product development experience with a passion for innovation. He is known by his colleagues as the "idea" guy. To Vitrue he brings social media expertise, technical aptitude with an aggressive and evolving product vision. He continues to lead the concept and development for the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI) tool and is a cornerstone of creating "proof of concept" illustrations for Vitrue's Fortune 1,000 client base.
Prior to joining Vitrue, Mike spent over a decade at EarthLink where he lead cross-functional teams of engineers and business people to develop and continually improve cutting edge applications and services. As Director of Software Product Management his team was responsible for Montage, Email client, Total Access, Spyware Blocker, Pop-Up Blocker, ScamBlocker, Parental Controls, and Protection Control Center. Key milestones included the creation of an innovative new product, Montage, that simplified voicemail management over the Internet and implementation of the first national Pop-Up Blocker that changed the online advertising industry. Mike also created and ran the Business Web Hosting group from inception during his tenure at MindSpring/EarthLink.
Simply put, Mike has directed products that reached millions of consumers, generating both direct and incremental revenue.
Mike is a native to Georgia and attended Kennesaw State University but above all a proud father and husband.
Steven J. Heyer, Vice Chairman back to top>
Steve is widely known as one of the premier marketing and operations executives in the world. Prior to his leadership roles at Starwood, where he led a remarkable turnaround that helped the company more than double its market cap via innovative marketing and sales initiatives, he was president and COO of Coca-Cola. While at Coca-Cola, Steve caught the attention of Madison Ave, Wall Street and Hollywood with his keynote at the premier Madison & Vine conference, where he urged companies to innovate their marketing strategies and approaches and "collaborate or die."
Before Coca-Cola, Steve was President and COO of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and a member of AOL Time Warner's Operating Committee. During his tenure at Turner, he was instrumental in launching 14 new television networks and led the effort to expand Turner's Internet presence, introducing 19 distinct Web sites for its CNN, Cartoon Network and its Turner Classic Movie brands in various languages. Prior to serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of Young & Rubicam Advertising Worldwide, he spent 15 years at Booz Allen & Hamilton, ultimately becoming Senior Vice President and Managing Partner, and heading the company's global marketing practice.
Dave Andonian, Director back to top>
Dave Andonian is Managing Partner at Dace Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm with over $70 million under management, investing in the Next Wave of innovations in digital media, consumer marketing and mobile services. Dave has over 28 years experience as an operating executive, in M&A and as an investor while growing technology-based software, hardware and marketing service companies. Dave has acquired or invested in more than 40 companies and has sat on 18 boards of directors of technology companies ranging from start-ups to publicly traded companies. Before founding Dace, Dave was an entrepreneur-in-residence for Flagship Ventures, in Cambridge, MA, and subsequently became chairman/CEO of EveryScape, a consumer marketing services company. He previously served as President and COO at CMGI, at the time the world's largest Internet venture, incubating and operating company. At CMGI, Dave worked closely on the growth and IPO's of Navisite (Nasdaq: NAVI) and Engage (OTC: ENGA), as well as AdSmart, AltaVista, iCast and others. Dave also held executive sales and marketing positions with PictureTel and at IBM where he was GM and VP of Worldwide Marketing for the PC Division. Dave currently serves on the boards of TerreStar (Nasdaq: TSTR), EveryScape, auctionPAL, CityVoter, Panraven and Vitrue.
David Fialkow, Director back to top>
David Fialkow is a Managing Director and co-founder of General Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs in the applied technology arena. He and General Catalyst are also co-founders of Upromise, a web-based college funding plan, and SmartBargains.com. In addition to Vitrue, Inc., Mr. Fialkow is a board member of: BBN Technologies; Eons.com; OnForce; and SmartBargains. Prior to co-founding General Catalyst Partners, Mr. Fialkow co-founded and operated numerous businesses focused on building applied technology-based platforms and tools for the travel, information services, financial services, specialty retail, and payment processing industries. He is a former associate of Thomas H. Lee Company and U.S. Venture Partners, is a member of the MIT Leadership Center Advisory Council, and serves on several non-profit boards, including: Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, New England Chapter; Facing History and Ourselves; The Steppingstone Foundation; The Pan-Mass Challenge; and The Boys and Girls Club of Boston. Mr. Fialkow is a graduate of Colgate University and Boston College Law School.
Neil Sequeira, Director back to top>
Mr. Sequeira joined General Catalyst Partners from Time Warner where he was most recently Managing Director, Technology for Time Warner Investments (formerly AOL Time Warner Ventures), the private investment vehicle for the world's largest media company. While here, he worked closely with AOL, HBO, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, Turner and Warner Bros. to identify investment opportunities. He was actively involved with the boards of several of the companies within the Time Warner Investments portfolio including Arroyo Video Solutions, BigBand Networks, Entropic, Goldpocket Interactive, N2Broadband and Waterfront Media. Prior to Time Warner, Mr. Sequeira led Mergers and Acquisitions for CMGI, a diversified technology operating company and venture capital firm, where he was actively involved with Alta Vista, Engage, NaviSite, Ubid, and Yesmail. Previously, he was an Associate with Goldman, Sachs & Co. and a senior consultant with Accenture. He has spoken at numerous media and venture capital conferences and is a judge for the Harvard, MIT and Wharton Business Plan Competitions. Mr. Sequeira holds a BA in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
George Bell, Board Observer back to top>
George Bell been involved in the creation and growth of consumer businesses for 25 years. Prior to joining General Catalyst Partners, he was president and CEO of Upromise, the country's largest college savings service. He was also chairman and CEO of Excite@Home, where he was responsible for joining the Excite portal with the @Home cable broadband platform in a $7 billion merger. As president and CEO of Excite, he oversaw the acquisition of more than 20 companies between 1995-1999. Previously, he founded The Outdoor Life Network (OLN) and served as senior vice president for Times Mirror Magazines, and was a four-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer of adventure, wildlife and vanishing culture documentaries for ABC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic. Mr. Bell is currently board chairman of Harris Interactive, chairman of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council; and chairman of the New England Advisory Board of Trust for Public Land. He has won a number of entrepreneur awards, been featured in many national publications, has appeared regularly on CNBC as both guest and co-host, and spoken extensively on new media, convergence, and leadership. Mr. Bell holds a BA from Harvard College.
Jim McCaffrey, Board Observer back to top>
Jim McCaffrey is executive vice president of operations & strategy for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.). In this capacity, he leads a team of senior executives responsible for managing Turner Strategic Planning, New Products, Research & Development, Network Operations, Turner Studios and Technology Development, and the CNN Systems, Technology and Engineering units. As lead strategist for Turner, he is charged with the assessment of long-term risks and opportunities, and the development of all strategic initiatives across the company's domestic and international entertainment, news and sports portfolio. McCaffrey works closely with parent company Time Warner Inc. on matters involving Turner Broadcasting. He is based in Atlanta and reports to Philip I. Kent, chairman and CEO, TBS, Inc.
McCaffrey joined TBS, Inc. in 1995 from the O&W Group, a worldwide consulting and systems development company specializing in providing technological and operations solutions to large corporate clients. Earlier in his career, he held positions in new product and business development at Beatrice Companies, and in brand management at Cadbury-Schweppes.
McCaffrey earned an undergraduate degree at Cornell University and a master's degree in business administration at the Stern School of Business. He serves on the board of trustees of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeepers, as well as, the Board of Advisors of the Duke University Graduate School of Leadership & Ethics.
Louis Toth, Board Observer back to top>
Louis Toth oversees investing activities at Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC) where he is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities, coordinating due diligence efforts and assisting in the negotiation and structuring of financial terms for new portfolio investments. He also serves as a director, board observer or adviser for Arcwave, Cedar Point Communications, Jingle Networks, RF Magic, RGB Networks, and StrataLight Communications, in addition to Vitrue. At CIC, Mr. Toth works with the management of CIC portfolio companies on strategic, business development and operations issues. Previously, he worked in investment banking and at a venture capital firm focused on technology and communications services. Mr. Toth graduated with honors and holds a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts in International Studies from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also graduated from the Management & Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science & Engineering from the School of Engineering & Applied Science.
Adam Benjamin, Advisor back to top>
Adam Benjamin leads Global Customer Marketing Strategy at Facebook where he helps brands leverage the full power of the Facebook platform. Prior Adam joined Vitrue in 2008, upon the company's merger with UGENmedia, as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to founding UGENmedia, Benjamin was the Vice President and General Manager of the Email Solutions division for DoubleClick Inc., and was instrumental in growing the business to over $40 million in annual revenue. He joined DoubleClick in 1997 and built the customer support and sales engineering division from 10 to 130 people, expanding and opening offices in New York, Colorado, Dublin and Sydney. During his tenure at DoubleClick, Benjamin served as the Vice President of several technology divisions including Email Solutions, Tech Solutions Search and Tech Solutions Adserving.
Prior to DoubleClick, Benjamin worked for Reuters of America in their Global Accounts division where he designed Internet-based research and trading applications for JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. He also worked for Prodigy Internet where he oversaw the development and daily operations of over 350 content properties. Benjamin started his professional career as a founding member of HeartBeat Corporation, a multimedia software company that partnered and co-developed hardware and software with Sega of America and Electronic Arts.
Adam holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Providence College.
Ronald Conway, Advisor back to top>
Ronald Conway is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds. He was also an early investor in Ask Jeeves and Google. Ron worked with National Semiconductor Corporation in various marketing positions (1973-1979). Altos Computer Systems benefited under Ron's leadership as a co-founder, President and CEO, and as a member of the Board (1979-1990).
He led Personal Training Systems (PTS) for five years as President and CEO (1991-1995). PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft and Ron served on their Board of Directors until September 2002. Ron has served on several Boards/Advisory Boards including: The Red Herring Magazine, AtWeb (sold to Netscape/AOL), SendMail, Bright Mail, Ask Jeeves, Napster, and Support.com, SNOCAP, Plaxo, Soliel Securities, Marimba, Metamatrix and AVP.
Ron is involved in community activities as a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer for The Altos Foundation (1993 - 2000), which has contributed over $10M to Bay Area Charities. He is on the development committees of UCLA, St. Francis High School, Sacred Heart Schools, and UCSF Medical Center. Ron serves as Chairman of the Development committee of Ronald McDonald House at Stanford and the Packard Children's Hospital. Ron co-founded the UCLA VC Fund whose investments benefit UCLA, and was a member of the DAPER VC Fund that benefits the Stanford Athletic Department (1999-2002). Ron is also on the Benefit Committee of the Tiger Woods Foundation.
General Catalyst back to top>
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals' extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has approximately $1 billion under management and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.generalcatalyst.com.
Dace Ventures back to top>
Based in Waltham, Mass, Dace Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm with over $70 million of funds under management. Dace is actively investing in entrepreneurs building the Next Wave of internet-related innovations in digital media, consumer marketing and mobile services. First and foremost, the fund invests in entrepreneurs who are building great teams. Dace looks for companies with compelling innovation, first mover advantage in high-potential markets and an opportunity for the partnership to provide value at key inflection points of growth. Current investments include auctionPAL, CityVoter, LocaModa, Panraven and Vitrue. For more information, go to www.daceventures.com.
Comcast Interactive Capital back to top>
Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC) is a venture capital fund focused on broadband, enterprise and interactive technologies. CIC is affiliated with Comcast Corporation, a diversified global leader in cable, broadband services, telecommunications, and entertainment. CIC's primary goal is to generate superior financial returns from private equity investments in early and growth stage technology and services companies. To achieve this goal, CIC works to foster the success of its portfolio companies by bringing to bear the unique resources, experience, and insight of both CIC and the Comcast family of companies. Additional information is available at www.civentures.com.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. back to top>
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
