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Board of Directors
Doug Stevenson - Chairman of the Board Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder
Doug Stevenson serves as the CEO and co-founder of Vibrant, leading the company's expansion since it began operations in July 2000. Starting with an initial investment of $500,000, Doug has developed Vibrant into a global online advertising business with over 200 employees located in New York, San Francisco, London, Hamburg and Paris. Vibrant's in-text advertising reaches over 120M Unique Users on over 3,000 publisher web sites in 13 different languages. Vibrant's advertisers include Fortune 500 global brands such as Microsoft, Daimler-Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard and Sony.
Vibrant has won numerous awards for its rapid growth, international expansion and its contextual advertising technology. Among these awards, the Company has been recognized by both the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 list for two consecutive years. Prior to founding Vibrant, Doug worked at AOL Europe as Head of E-commerce and has nineteen years of publishing, media and Internet experience with AOL, CompuServe, Netscape, Haymarket Publishing and BBC Magazines/Redwood Publishing. Doug has a B.S.c. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Edinburgh University.
Craig Gooding - Board Director Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder
Craig Gooding serves as the CCO and co-founder of Vibrant, leading the strategy and execution of business development and sales for the company. Craig has overseen the acquisition of over 1,600 publishers and leading advertisers to Vibrant's network. Vibrant's in-text advertising reaches over 120M Unique Users on over 3000 publisher web sites in 13 different languages. Vibrant's advertisers include Fortune 500 global brands such as Apple, BP, Intel and Toyota.
Vibrant has won numerous awards for its rapid growth, international expansion and its contextual advertising technology. Among these awards, the Company has been recognized by both the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 list for two consecutive years. Craig was formerly AOL Europe's e-commerce Manager and leading dealmaker and has thirteen years of publishing, media and Internet experience gained at AOL, CompuServe, Netscape, and ICQ. He was previously Associate Publisher of MLP's Enterprise Magazine and has been involved in the successful launch of a number of magazines and online media properties. Craig also played a crucial role in the launch of Netscape Online. Craig has a B.A. in Humanities from Hull University.
Ralph Terkowitz - Board Director
Ralph Terkowitz joined ABS Capital Partners in January 2004 as a General Partner and is responsible for investments in companies within the media & communication and technology sectors. Terkowitz represents ABS Capital on the boards of American Public Education, Inc., eFashionSolutions, LLC, Vibrant, Inc. and WhenU.com, Inc. He is also an observer on the board of Course Advisor, Inc.
Previously serving as CIO/CTO of the Washington Post Company, Terkowitz brings more than 30 years of operating, financial and technical experience to ABS Capital. Terkowitz served as founder and CEO of its electronic publishing subsidiary, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive (formerly DigitalInk). Also for the Washington Post, Terkowitz was also the CEO of Brass Ring for the Washington Post, one of the first business services providers. Brass Ring has grown to be one of the two largest outsourced recruiting platforms. Terkowitz serves on the board of TRUSTe and eCornell.
In addition to his ABS Capital duties, he is a member of the board of advisors of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the Indian CEO High Tech Council, the Cornell University Council and the Newspaper Association of America's Business Committee on Industry Development.
Deric Emry - Board Observer
Deric Emry joined ABS Capital in 1999 and is a General Partner responsible for investments in the media and communications sectors. He serves on the boards of ABS portfolio companies Control Point Solutions, Inc., Course Advisor, Inc. and Vibrant, Inc. Emry was formerly a board member of Simplexity, Inc. (now InPhonic, Inc.) and Captivate Network, Inc. He was also an observer on the boards of NeuStar, Inc., SBA Communications Corp. and Dolan Media Company.
Prior to joining ABS Capital, Emry was part of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown's Media & Communications Investment Banking team from 1996 to 1999. During that time, this team was considered by Wall Street to be the premier investment banking team in the sector. Emry was instrumental in developing new sub-sectors of focus within media & communications. For example, his team raised Wall Street awareness of communications tower companies, eventually becoming the leading banker for the most significant companies in that industry.
In addition to his board duties, Emry is a member of the William T. Walters Committee of the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore.
Wim Obbens - Board Director
Wim Obbens served until recently as Managing Director of the Corporate Finance & Capital Markets Department of Fortis. He was a member of the Management Teams of the Specialized Finance and the Corporate & Institutional Banking department of the Merchant Banking division. Previously, he was a Member of the Board of MeesPierson, then the investment banking arm of Fortis. He is also director of a number of companies (indirectly) owned by Fortis. Prior to joining MeesPierson, he worked for Swiss Bank Corporation/SBC Warburg being responsible for Investment banking in the Netherlands and in the investment banking business line of ABN AMRO. Obbens graduated in Business Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Roelant Lyppens - Board Observer
Roelant Lyppens is Executive Director at the Technology, Media & Telecommunications team at Fortis Corporate Finance & Capital Markets in Amsterdam, where he joined in 2007. Prior to Fortis, Roelant worked for the mergers & acquisitions department of KPN, the Dutch incumbent telecom operator, in which he completed multiple transactions for all segments of the company. Before, he was CFO of PanTel, the alternative telecom operator of Hungary now part of HTCC (AMEX;HTC) and was board member of Euroweb, the central eastern Europe ISP. Roelant has also been manager corporate finance of Xantic, the satellite communications joint venture of KPN and Telstra and had several other finance positions within the KPN Group. Roelant obtained a Master in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam.
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