Speakers

Neal Goldman

Chairman & CEO, Relationship Science

Neal is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Relationship Science (RelSci).

Previously, Neal was the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capital IQ, Inc. until its sale to McGraw]Hill/Standard & Poor's, and prior thereto a banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Lehman Brothers.

Neal is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Young Presidents Organization and a board member of Hatzalah and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Neal received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School where he has also served as an Adjunct Faculty Member.

Jeanette Horan

Chief Information Officer, IBM

In May 2011, Jeanette Horan was appointed Chief Information Officer of IBM. Ms. Horan’s organization supports operational excellence and drives IBM’s transformation agenda – focusing on business transformation, workforce transformation, and IT transformation. Her organization is responsible for equipping IBMers with the technology and tools they need to better support clients and achieve IBM’s objectives. Ms. Horan leads the development and implementation of a technology strategy aligned with the business that meets both the growth and productivity commitments of IBM’s 2015 roadmap.

Previously Ms. Horan was the vice president of Enterprise Business Transformation. In this role, Ms. Horan led IBM’s transformation program for key back office processes to accelerate IBM’s leadership as a globally integrated enterprise. In partnership with IBM’s Global Business Services and SAP, she led a multi-disciplinary, global team deploying simplified business processes worldwide.

Ms. Horan joined IBM in 1998, and has held leadership positions within the Lotus brand, Information Management and IBM Software Group Strategy. Prior to joining the CIO office in 2006, Ms. Horan was responsible for worldwide product development for the Information Management business in Software Group, and was the General Manager of IBM’s Silicon Valley Laboratory.

Prior to joining Lotus, Ms. Horan spent four years with Digital Equipment Corporation where she was vice president of development for the AltaVista business, bringing the Web search engine and suite of intranet products to market. She has more than 25 years experience in development and management roles in the computer industry.

As part of her business and personal involvement in the advancement of technology and service to the community, Ms. Horan serves on the board of Microvision Inc., an innovative display and imaging solutions company. She also serves as a director on the board of Jane Do No More Inc., an organization committed to improving the way society responds to victims of sexual assault.

A native of the United Kingdom, Ms. Horan earned a bachelors degree in Mathematics from the University of London and an MBA from Boston University.

Mike Alfred

CEO, Brightscope

Mike Alfred is Co-Founder and CEO of BrightScope and responsible for the strategic vision and leadership of the company. Previously, Mike was the Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager of Alfred Capital Management LLC, an independent registered investment firm located in La Jolla, CA. He has been a Financial Advisor and Portfolio Manager since 2003. Mike is a dynamic thinker capable of developing and implementing cutting-edge business models and effective marketing strategies. He is also a proven relationship builder who excels at establishing key partnerships. A noted and quoted 401k and financial expert, Mike has appeared on CNBC, ABC News, Fox Business News, National Public Radio and in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fast Company, Inc., Wired, US News and World Report, CNN/Money Magazine, SmartMoney, theStreet.com, Kiplinger, Pensions & Investments, Employee Benefit Adviser, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The San Diego Business Journal, and many others.

In addition to his work endeavors, Mike and his brother, BrightScope President Ryan Alfred, teach financial literacy to minority students through the Links Achievers Program, the Pathways to College Network, and Jack and Jill of America. Mike and Ryan also teach the Stock Market Game to high school students at Cathedral Catholic High School and mentor entrepreneurs at the Founder Institute. He sits on the Board of the San Diego Software Industry Council and received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University.

Marc Alvarez

Senior Director, Reference Data Infrastructure, Interactive Data Corporation

Marc Alvarez is a Senior Director with Interactive Data in New York where he leads product and data architecture for the Pricing & Reference Data business. He is a veteran of over 25 years in the market data industry with deep experience in both realtime and reference data domains.
Marc is an active contributor to the industry press with a focus on capital markets data content, management, and business applications. In addition he is the author of Market Data Explained: A Practical Guide to Global Capital Markets Information published by Elsevier in 2007 and, most recently, is a contributing author to the upcoming Handbook of Financial Data and Risk Information from Cambridge University Press.

Michael Bird

President, NetProspex

Michael has over 20 years building high performance organizations across the electronic publishing and social media industries. Prior to NetProspex, Michael was the SVP of Sales and Business Development and a member of the executive team at the social media and engagement marketing pioneer, BzzAgent.

Previously, Michael was the VP of Global Solutions at CNET where he launched the highly successful International Network Sales division across 15 countries throughout EMEA and Asia. While at CNET he also lead all sales and business intelligence for the B2B media network that included ZDNet TechRepublic and BNet. Michael was also a founding member of the venture accelerator, Stonepath Group and spent the early part of his career in roles of increasing responsibility at Ziff-Davis media.

Michael is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, quoted often in the business press and has been a regular guest on multiple Fox Business News programs.

Minal Bopaiah

Editor, Subscription Site Insider

Minal Bopaiah is the Editor of Subscription Site Insider, which publishes extensive resources, including case studies, business data, monthly webinars and advanced how-to reports for publishers and marketers selling subscriptions online for paid content and membership sites. She has been an invited speaker at Folio’s MediaNext event, SIPA conferences and webinars, the Financial Publishers Roundtable, and many premium webinars. Minal can be contacted via email at minalb@subscriptionsiteinsider.com or on Twitter @SubSiteCentral.

Jeremy Bronfman

CEO, Enigma

Since 2010 Jeremy has been involved in identifying investment opportunities at both MG Partners and Island Capital. In 2005 Jeremy founded Forgen Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration production company where he oversaw strategic direction, financing and hedging activities.
From 2003 to 2005 Jeremy was an analyst at Iroquois Capital where he identified opportunities in PIPE investments in small cap public companies. Jeremy holds a B.A. from Stanford University in Public Policy and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

David Chun

Founder & CEO, Equilar

David has led Equilar since its inception to become one of the most respected and trusted names in the executive compensation industry and has been recognized as one of the "100 Most Influential Players in Corporate Governance" by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). David often speaks publicly on issues facing the executive compensation industry, including events hosted by The Conference Board, Directorship, The HR Policy Association, NACD, NASDAQ OMX, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP), NYSE Euronext, RiskMetrics, Stanford's Directors' College, and WorldatWork.


Prior to founding Equilar, David was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, a global investment bank that has since merged with Credit Suisse. Prior to DLJ, David was a management consultant with Bain & Company and also Kenan Systems, a telecom billing software developer that was subsequently acquired by Lucent Technologies.


David is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), a Charter Member of the Asian-American Multi-Technology Association (AAMA), a director of the Asian Pacific Fund Community Foundation, and a co-founder of the Korean American Society of Entrepreneurs (KASE). David earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Science with Honors in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Keith Cooper

CEO, Connotate

Keith brings more than 20 years of experience to Connotate with a proven record of successfully leading innovative technology companies to rapid growth and exceptional value. Three of his most recent leadership roles include serving as President of Carbonite, an online backup company that grew to over 1 million customers, was ranked ninth on the Inc. 500 list and completed a successful IPO in 2011; CEO at webHancer Corporation, a company Cooper led and successfully sold to Microsoft; and CEO of FaxNet, a leading provider of messaging solutions to large telecom companies, which was acquired by Critical Path.

Keith is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard College. He serves on the Content Division Board of Directors of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and is the Chairman of the Harvard Rugby Alumni Association.

John Crimmins

VP of Strategy, RetailNext

John brings over 25 years of strategic consulting experience to RetailNext, most recently with ShopperTrak, where he served for six years as the Director of Consulting Services. In that role, John worked closely with clients from virtually every retail segment to help them realize the full ROI on their front door traffic investment by demonstrating the strategic value of using traffic-based metrics to measure store performance, allocate labor, and identify best practices. John was the SVP of the Client Solutions Group at ChoicePoint Precision Marketing where he was responsible for driving annual sales growth through the use of complex data analytics to design matrix marketing programs for the financial services industry. John started his career as a strategy consultant with the global management consulting firm, Bain and Company. John graduated from the University of North Carolina with a BA in Asian Studies and received his JD from Harvard Law School.

Adrian Dickson

VP of Content, qbeats

Adrian Dickson is Vice President of Content at qbeats, a new digital platform that connects buyers and sellers of news. Adrian is responsible for managing qbeats relationship with multiple global publishers and identifying and recruiting new content suppliers.

Adrian comes to qbeats following a successful career in international journalism, most of it at Thomson Reuters, the global news and information company. At various times during his more than 20 years with Reuters, Adrian held the managing editor position in Brazil, Latin America, Japan and Asia, a role that required him to oversee news output, ensure journalist security and develop financial information products aimed at professional audiences. These included among others real time financial news services in Brazil and across Spanish Latin America, an economic insight service in Japan and Reuters first introduction of a moderated chatroom for market professionals in Asia. Also at Reuters, Adrian was one of the leaders of a team that overhauled the company’s news publishing platform and which for the first time connected the company’s 2,800 journalists to the same editing system. Earlier in his journalism career Adrian covered major stories of huge international interest including the civil war in El Salvador, the rise and fall of Colombia’s Medellin Cartel and Brazil and Argentina’s separate struggles to overcome hyperinflation and put their economies on a stable path to growth.

Adrian is an Argentine national. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and holds a BA from Boston College.

John Ernsberger

Co-founder, Stella Service

John Ernsberger is co-founder and vice president of sales and services at STELLAService, an independent firm that measures and rates the customer service performance of online retailers.

As an expert on the intersection of big data and ecommerce, John frequently delivers speeches on improving the customer service experience and has been quoted in industry publications including think tank L2’s Digital IQ Index.

Prior to STELLAService, John was a sales director at SEI Investments and a paralegal at Davis Polk & Wardwell. An East coast native, John traveled abroad to study business at Seville University in Spain and returned to graduate from Bucknell University with a degree in business management.

John Felahi

Chief Strategy Officer, Content Analyst

Mr. Felahi is the Chief Strategy Officer for Content Analyst Company, LLC. He is responsible for the company product strategy and vision. Prior to joining the Content Analyst Company team, he was a Principal Product Planner at Microsoft Corporation, where he was part of a small team responsible for setting the Office product division’s long term product direction and strategy. Before Microsoft acquired FAST Search & Transfer, John lead FAST’s OEM business, application product management, integration efforts of acquisitions and company messaging. Mr. Felahi has held executive and senior positions at a number of companies in his 20+ years in the software industry. John was a member of the honors program and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy from Boston College.

Len Gilbert

VP of Business Development, Yodle

Len Gilbert is a digital executive with two decades of experience developing and leading B2B and B2c eCommerce and content businesses. He has spent the last 15 years in senior leadership positions at Yodle, Inc., LexisNexis, McGraw-Hill, and Barnes & Noble.com, overseeing business development, product development, and marketing organizations and serving as General Manager of numerous online and multi-channel businesses.

Len is currently serving as Vice President, Head of Business Development at Yodle, one of the leading players in online marketing and customer retention services for small business and franchise operations. Len leads the Business Development team and also has P&L responsibility for the White-Label, Reseller, and Strategic Referral channels.

Prior to that, Len was Vice President, Directory Products & Advertising at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. In this role Len created the strategy and drove execution of new products and services that help lawyers expand their client base via lead generation and advertising programs on Lawyers.com, Martindale.com, and Attorneys.com.

Prior to joining LexisNexis, Len spent 3 years at The McGraw-Hill Companies’ Information & Media Segment where he developed and executed strategies to grow revenue for JD Power, MH Construction, Aviation Week & Space Technology, and Platts) via online channels. Len directed the development of the Segment’s enhanced eCommerce, digital advertising, Social Media, and SEO/SEM capabilities.

Before that, Len spent 10 years at Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Barnes & Noble.com in various GM roles, overseeing the launch and growth of Barnes & Noble University and Barnes & Noble gift cards (in-store, corporate and out-of-store), and BN.com advertising and package insert programs. He also led the development of Barnes & Noble.com’s digital product lines and digital marketing functions such as book preview.

Len has a B.A. Magna Cum Laude with Honors from the College of William & Mary.

Russell Glass

CEO & Co-founder, Bizo

Russell Glass is the CEO of Bizo, an online B2B marketing platform. Based in San Francisco, he founded Bizo in 2008 and and has led the company's growth to over $30 million in annual revenue run rate in four years. Mr. Glass is a serial technology entrepreneur, having founded or held senior positions at four venture-backed technology companies. Prior to Bizo, Mr. Glass led the marketing and product management teams as a senior vice president and general manager at ZoomInfo, a business information search engine, where he honed his B2B marketing skill-set and developed his love for data. In 1999, he founded and led AGEA Corp., an interactive notification software company, until selling it to Avalon Digital Marketing in 2003, where he served as Vice President of Enterprise Solutions. Mr. Glass is a graduate of Duke University.

Chris Golec

Founder & CEO, Demandbase

Chris Golec has built three successful technology businesses in the last 14 years. He thrives on innovation with a relentless focus on customer success and bottom line results. As Founder and CEO of Demandbase, Chris's mission is to fundamentally change the way businesses attract, sell and retain customers online. Today, hundreds of enterprises have adopted Demandbase's technology to change the way they sell and market to their customers.

Prior to starting Demandbase, Chris founded Supplybase to help global manufacturers collaborate with their supply chain to bring new products to market. Supplybase was sold in March of 2000 to i2 Technologies as part of the $9.4B software merger with Aspect Development. Before becoming a software entrepreneur, Chris held multiple sales, marketing and engineering positions with GE, DuPont, and GM.

Christopher Gray

Co-founder, Scholly

Christopher Gray, nicknamed “The Million Dollar Scholar”, is a junior at Drexel University who won $1.3 million in scholarships to attend college. These scholarships include the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Coca Cola Scholarship, AXA Achievement Scholarship, and the Horatio Alger Scholarship. Christopher is the CEO and Founder of Scholly, a mobile app that gives students a fast and simple way to find money to pay for college. Scholly uses eight specific parameters — such as state, race, GPA or major — to instantly filter listings into a comprehensive directory of scholarships for which the prospective applicant is eligible. Scholly has been featured on Fox29, USA Today, the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Tech Crunch.
Christopher is also a partner at the Dorm Room Fund, a student run venture capital firm backed by First Round Capital. The fund invests in student run start-ups in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and San Francisco. The firm has invested in over twenty start-ups and has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Tech Crunch, and the New York Times. Previously, he worked at Fannie as a co-op intern as a part of their underwriting team.

Kathy Greenler Sexton

VP and General Manager, Content Division, SIIA

Kathy serves as the VP and General Manager of the SIIA Content Division, developing and delivering the many programs and initiatives of the Division.

Kathy is a dynamic, strategic and hands-on executive with deep experience serving Information, Internet and Media companies. After working in broadcast television and international marketing roles, she was a founding member, lead marketer and publisher for the web-based search engine pioneer AltaVista. She has also general-managed or marketed industry-leading online companies focused on news, small business information and general research including: ZoomInfo.com, BLR, Individual.com, Office.com and HighBeam Research. She has a BA in communications from Boston College.

Sam Hamadeh

Founder & CEO, PrivCo

Sam Hamadeh, Founder and CEO of PrivCo and Co-Founder of VAULT.com, is a veteran media entrepreneur, corporate attorney, and financial expert based in New York. In 1997 Sam co-founded VAULT.com, the web's leading career information website, upon graduation from the Wharton School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Sam served as the venture-capital-backed company’s President through his sale of a majority stake in Vault in 2007 to a major private equity firm for nearly $100 million. In 2009, Sam then founded the leading private company financial data provider PrivCo and has since served as PrivCo's Chief Executive Officer.

Sam is a JD graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School with Concentration in Corporate Law, and MBA graduate of the Wharton School of Business, with Concentration in Finance. His honors and awards have included Small Businessman of the Year by Crain’s Magazine, the Harvard Business School Club’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Silicon Alley Reporter’s "100 Most Influential Media Executives," Deloitte & Touche's 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Young Alumnus of the Year Award.

Sam has also served on the Board of Managers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has served on the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Advisory Board for U.S. Congressmen, and has been the official Entrepreneurship-in-Residence at the Wharton School, mentoring and advising MBA students on their startup business plans. He also serves each year as a Final Round Judge for the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition.

Sam Hamadeh has authored 16 books about entrepreneurship, business, careers and finance published by Random House and Houghton Mifflin as well as authoring the original "Vault Guide to Finance Interviews" and the "Vault Guide to Investment Banking." He has also worked on mergers & acquisitions and on IPOs as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and on IPOs and securities transactions at the leading New York law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore. Sam Hamadeh also holds an attorney's license in the state of New York and is an expert on corporate law related to private companies, including IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, SEC regulations, and venture capital.

Sam Hamadeh is a regular contributor on CNBC Fast Money, Bloomberg Television, Fox News Business, Canada's BNN: Business News Network, AP Television, China National Television, BSkyB SkyNews, NPR's "All Things Considered", and BBC Worldwide. Sam has also appeared on The Today Show, CNN, and Fox News, and is regularly quoted in news stories regarding private companies, venture capital, private-equity, LBOs, and IPOs in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Vanity Fair, among hundreds of other media outlets, and writes a column on entrepreneurship for Inc. Magazine.

Sam Hamadeh is a regular speaker on entrepreneurship, IPOs, private equity, M&A, and venture capital, and regularly works to promote government and public policy, hosts regular V.C.-entrepreneur networking events in his New York home, works to support candidates for high government office who support pro-entrepreneurship and small business policies, and otherwise works tirelessly to promote his goal of growing innovation and entrepreneurship in America.

Rob Heiser

President, Segmint

In 2007, Rob Heiser co-founded Segmint Inc, a fast-growing marketing technology company based in Akron, Ohio. He currently serves as Segmint’s president and CEO. Heiser is also co-founder, president and CEO of WiredViews Inc., a boutique digital marketing agency. Previously, Heiser was chief technology officer of SupplierInsight (acquired by Procuri), where he led the application and product development of the first commercially available Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) application. Heiser was also manager of internet applications and one of the founding employees of Xtrasource, Inc. (acquired by Sento in 2003). Heiser’s experience as an accomplished entrepreneur and his cross-industry expertise regarding all facets of data analytics, delivery channels and marketing technologies have provided him superior success in developing, launching and growing seven technology-driven businesses. His deep industry knowledge and experience also allow him to serve as an authoritative source regarding current and emerging trends impacting the constantly evolving digital marketplace. Heiser holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in Management and Information from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.

James Hobson

COO, OnDeck Capital

James Hobson's career spans a wide array of leadership experience in the consulting, telecommunications and financial services sector. Most recently, Hobson served as Senior Vice President, Technology Operations for iQor, Inc., a leading private-equity backed global business process outsourcing company. At iQor he helped build a platform for commercializing iQor’s proprietary suite of business applications and provided day-to-day leadership for a global technology team. Furthermore, James built and ran iQor's financial infrastructure team, which drove efficiencies and cost reductions across iQor's global operations. He is also a co-founder of BuyYourFriendADrink.com, which was acquired by LivingSocial in 2009. James holds a BA in economics from Hamilton College and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was chosen as a Baker Scholar.

Eric Irani

Associate, S&P Capital IQ

Eric Irani is a Senior Financial Content Specialist for S&P Capital IQ. The Content Organization represents the content capability across S&P Capital IQ that provides high quality and timely content and overall content support to internal and external customers. The subject matter expertise of the content organization execute and implement new ideas and initiatives to continuously improve the value of products and services through the introduction or integration of new content.

Based in NYC, Eric is specifically responsible for the integration of financial data on the S&P Capital IQ platform, including the ingestion of 3rd party private company financials. He works closely with clients to help them leverage S&P Capital IQ’s qualitative and quantitative datasets and analytical tools.

He has been with S&P Capital IQ for 6 years and prior to joining S&P Capital IQ, he was an Investment Banking Analyst for Bank of America. Eric holds a BBA with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting from the University of Michigan and is a CFA charterholder.

Vinit Khanna

Chairman of the Board, OKS Group

Vinit founded OKS in 1985 from the living room of his West Philadelphia apartment. A lot has changed since then, but not the things that matter most. His goal then and remains today to provide companies with business process outsourcing services that are both affordable and of the highest quality. Vinit was educated at The Doon School and St. Stephen’s College in India and holds an MBA from The Wharton School. His interests include international travel, cricket, golf and squash.


He comments, “I take pride in the fact that OKS’ growth over the years has resulted in the education and improved standard of living of persons outside the Western Hemisphere, which has led these people to a broader understanding of the world. We have also established programs throughout our non-U.S. production areas specifically designed for employing women, young mothers with families to support, and educated youth. This is not something that shows up on a balance sheet, but at the end of the day it is what gives me the most satisfaction".

Peter Lankford

President, Technology Business Development Corp

Peter Lankford is founder and director of STAC®, the Securities Technology Analysis Center (www.STACresearch.com), which provides hands-on technology research and testing tools to the finance industry. STAC facilitates the STAC Benchmark Council™, a group of leading financial institutions and vendors that engages in technical dialog and specifies standard ways to assess technologies used in the financial markets. Prior to STAC, Peter was Senior Vice President of Information Management Solutions at Reuters, where he led the $240M market data systems business. Peter’s team led Reuters into the business of low-latency direct exchange feeds and catalyzed the widespread adoption of Linux on Wall Street by making the Reuters Market Data System (RMDS) the first major product for the securities industry on that platform. Prior to Reuters, Peter held management positions at Citibank, First Chicago Corp., and operating-system maker IGC. Peter has an MBA, Masters in International Relations, and Bachelors in Chemistry from the University of Chicago.

John Lawler

Chief Executive Officer, Buyers Lab

John Lawler is a co-owner and Chief Executive Officer of Buyers Laboratory. John has 25 years executive experience with a track record of product innovation and M&A led growth in the global information services industry. Early in his career, John led businesses and growth initiatives for Dun & Bradstreet in North America, Europe and Asia. He is conversant in Japanese. John then became CEO of Martindale-Hubbell, leading the rapid growth and digital transformation of that $250 million business, primarily through product innovation and sales and marketing expansion. John has been involved in numerous acquisitions over the course of his career, and led the creation of a new division for LexisNexis, building a $425 million business unit through M&A and organic growth initiatives around content, software and services. Additionally, as CEO, he led growth and transformation for two middle market companies, Triumph Learning and Scantron. John earned a B.A. from Williams College and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Mark Leher

COO, Wand, Inc.

Mark Leher is the COO at WAND, Inc., the leading provider of pre-built taxonomy in the information industry. WAND has been providing taxonomy and related tools and services to help its clients organize unstructured information since 1998. Mark has been involved in taxonomy and unstructured information for over a decade and has worked with companies of all sizes to help develop taxonomy strategies and to apply taxonomy and metadata to information assets. Mark oversees WAND’s taxonomy development, taxonomy strategy, and professional services group and is also the creator of the WAND General Business Taxonomy which has been downloaded by more than 6,000 companies for use in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013.

Mark holds an MBA from the University of Denver Daniels College of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Washington. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and daughter.

Matt Manning

President, Information Evolution

Matt has worked in the database publishing business as a new product development specialist for over twenty-five years. He held senior management positions at Oxbridge Communications, Peterson's Guides, and Hoover's, Inc. where he was responsible for developing over a dozen new print and online information products. He also worked as a specialist in the design and development of new online information services via his consulting firm New & Improved Media, which built very successful online services for WealthEngine, Stratfor, and OneSource. Before founding Information Evolution Matt was Managing Director for another Indian-based research operation where he successfully handled major database maintenance and enhancement projects for 4 of the world's top 10 reference publishing firms. His current firm has been in business for more than five years and handles a diverse range of data enhancement, content creation, xml tagging, and real-time data maintenance tasks via dedicated overseas teams and a suite of specialized data tools including Connotate, Khemeia, WorkFusion, and Enlyton. Information Evolution clients include a range of online information service providers and innovative start-ups. Matt has spoken before the National Directory Conference, the Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association, The European Association of Directory Publishers, and the Internet Librarian conferences. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Asian Studies and a member of the University of Texas School of Information’s Advisory Board.

Gerry Mintz

Managing Partner, Percepta Partners

Gerry Mintz, managing partner, is an experienced senior operating executive and advisor with over 25 years’ experience in the B2B information, software and FinTech industries. He has successfully grown global businesses both organically and via acquisition, and has worked with a wide range of companies, including large public and private companies, mid-market firms, and startups.

Prior to founding Percepta Partners LLC in 2010, Gerry was CEO of PerTrac Financial Solutions. Previously he was President of Gartner Executive Programs, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company; CEO of Fame Information Services (acquired by SunGard Market Data Service); and held several divisional President roles at Reuters and Thomson Financial.

Gerry serves on the Advisory Board of Milestone Venture Partners and he has served on the boards of both private and public corporations in conjunction with his work advising VC and PE firms and their portfolio companies. Gerry earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Russell Perkins

Founder & Managing Director, InfoCommerce Group Inc.

Russell Perkins is the founder and Managing Director of InfoCommerce Group Inc., a Philadelphia-based researcher, consultancy and publisher serving the database information industry. Infocommerce Group is also the publisher of InfoCommerce Weekly Perspective, a weekly industry newsletter, and the sponsor of the annual InfoCommerce Conference and Health Content conferences.

Russell has over 20 years experience in directory and database publishing. He was most recently President and CEO of Dorland Healthcare Information, a venture capital funded healthcare database publisher. Prior to that, he was a Group President at magazine publisher North American Publishing, and previous to that Vice President of a legal news publisher that is now a subsidiary of American Lawyer Media. Russell has also worked at AT&T, and began his career at Thomas Publishing Company. Russell was also the founder of Morgan-Rand, which became widely known in the industry for its consulting and contract database publishing activities.

In addition, Russell is author of two books: Directory Publishing: A Practical Guide, now in its fifth edition, and InfoCommerce: Internet Strategies for Database Publishers. Russell has also served as a director of the organization that is now the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) and is active in the Association for Business Media (ABM) and the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA).

Contact information:
Russell Perkins
Infocommerce Group Inc.
2 Bala Plaza
Suite 300
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
610/649-1200 main
610/645-6911 direct
www.infocommercegroup.com

Mark Piening

Founder & CEO, Circle Media

Mark Piening is Circle Media’s founder and CEO, and has experience creating successful multi-million dollar programs for some of the world’s largest marketing and technology companies. Mark was most recently VP of Partner Sales and Strategic Alliances at Bazaarvoice, leading solution partnerships across a range of marketing and digital agencies, consulting partners (i.e. Accenture and Booz & Co.), and technology partners (i.e. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, etc.). Other leadership experiences include VP of Products, Marketing and Business Development at Uplogix, and Sr Director across Partner Marketing SMB and OEM Sales for Symantec. Mark is a UCLA undergrad and UNC MBA, with an emphasis on behavioral economics, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Alex Rosenberg

Director of New Products, FindTheCompany

Alex is Director of New Products at FindTheBest. At FindTheBest he sits on the core leadership team and runs the New Products business unit, which is charged with researching and incubating new businesses for the company. Current projects include FindTheCompany.com, a powerful tool for researching and establishing the reputation of 32M US-based companies and organizations.
Prior to joining FindTheBest, Alex worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco. At Bain, Alex worked on mergers and acquistions, strategic planning, customer segmentation, and new market entry work for multinational technology companies and private equity clients.
Alex graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.S.B.A. in Economics and Strategy, Finance, and Political Science.

Scott Taylor

Managing Director, InfoCommerce Group

Scott has over 15 years of experience creating and selling information solutions. His particular expertise is in DaaS (data as a service) and master data management as well as developing successful go-to-market approaches that build businesses. As a Managing Director for ICG, he helped clients identify opportunities to commercialize existing data assets and create new revenue streams. Scott’s consulting clients included: Microsoft, Nielsen, NPD, Kantar, Capstone Research, Spiceworks and Sparefoot.com.

Scott spent fourteen years at Nielsen (formerly VNU) where he led the creation and execution of the TDLinx business. TDLinx became the defacto standard for location information management, customer master coding, data integration, and seamless communications for consumer packaged goods manufacturers, beverage alcohol suppliers and the companies that serve them. In his role as General Manager he was responsible for strategy, marketing, sales, account management, alliances and technical relations. He also led Nielsen’s exploration into MDM business opportunities.

Prior to TDLinx, he worked at Progressive Grocer magazine and at a variety of in-store media start-ups including VideOcart (the first computer on a shopping cart).

He is a regular participant and speaker at industry conferences, seminars and user groups focusing on data integration, master data management, big data, CDI and retail consolidation. Scott recently began speaking on ways to increase sales effectiveness through a session called Selling IS Everything. Most recently, Scott published a White Paper sponsored by Microsoft entitled: MDM for Media - A Call to Action for Business Leaders.