Leadership: Board of Directors

Chairman, W2 Group, Inc.

Larry Weber is Chairman of W2 Group, a global marketing services ecosystem that helps CMOs in their new role as builders of communities and content aggregators. W2 Group includes public relations agency Racepoint Group, social media marketing firm Digital Influence Group and branding company Two Martinis.

A public relations visionary, in 1987 Larry established The Weber Group, which within a decade became the world's largest technology public relations firm. Interpublic purchased The Weber Group in 1996 and in 2000, Larry was named Chairman and CEO of Interpublic's Advanced Marketing Services group. In 2001 Larry built Weber Shandwick, which today is the world's largest public relations firm.

Larry serves on a number of boards for corporations, non-profit organizations and academic institutions. He is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX), the largest interactive advocacy organization in the world.

Larry has also published three books about next-generation business. Sticks and Stones: How Digital Business Reputations Are Created Over Time and Lost in a Click was published in July 2009 from Wiley & Sons. Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business was first published by Wiley in 2007 with a second edition in 2009. The Provocateur: How a New Generation of Leaders Are Building Communities, Not Just Companies was printed in 2002 by Random House.

Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP

Michael Barron is a Partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP in the Corporate Practice Group. Mr. Barron focuses on providing legal services to emerging technology and life sciences companies and to investors in emerging technology and life sciences companies, in addition to providing trademark and licensing services. Mr. Barron is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Mr. Barron is a member of the American Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Licensing Executive Society, the Bioscience Network and the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (Board of Directors). Mr. Barron is the founder and general counsel for the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX).

Co-Founder & CEO, DataXu

Mike is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Currently he is CEO of DataXu, a leader in digital marketing management solutions. Before DataXu, Mike was a Vice President at Nokia, where he created and ran Nokia Interactive. He came to Nokia through its acquisition of pioneering mobile media company Enpocket, where he was the founding investor and CEO. He has also been Executive Vice President at CMGI and Engage Technologies, early Internet IPOs. Along the way, Mike was a corporate partner in a venture capital firm and a telecom & media lawyer in Washington, DC. An angel investor in over 20 companies, he is currently chairman of the board of Nexage, a mobile advertising solutions provider. Mike writes and speaks frequently about digital media, big data and decision science.

SVP, E-commerce, The TJX Companies

Elaine is the head of ecommerce for TJX, a global off-price retailer which includes TJ Maxx, Marshall's and Homegoods stores. She is leading the global rollout of the companies new online business. Prior to joining TJX, Elaine was SVP, Ecommerce at Chico's FAS and Chief Marketing Officer and head of strategy at Ann Taylor, Inc. Prior to joining Ann Taylor, Elaine was a member of the retail practice for the Boston Consulting Group. Her education includes an MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

SVP Digital Media Director, Hill Holliday

Tammy has 18 years of corporate and agency experience, specializing in digital media, marketing, and project management. At Hill Holliday, Tammy has built out and runs the digital media planning and buying discipline.

Prior to Hill Holliday, Tammy was at Digitas, during a time of rapid growth in the interactive industry, where she led digital media negotiations and campaign management for 40 Johnson & Johnson consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical brands. She was also client side where she developed and managed Staples' integrated marketing efforts, targeting the most profitable consumers that exhibited shopping behaviors similar to the key small business segment. She also negotiated and launched Staples' involvement in consumer loyalty/couponing programs with Upromise, American Express Membership Rewards, and Discover Cashback.

Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups.  He currently represents the firm on the boards of BzzAgent, ClickSquared, DataXu, digitalArbor, i4cp, Catera Commerce, oneforty, Ready Financial,  SimpleTuition, and Transpera and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M), go2Media, and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless).

Jeff was recently appointed to serve as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.  He is also on the board of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of FirstGrowth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting first and second time entrepreneurs building exciting companies in the New York area. 

Jeff's popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at http://www.seeingbothsides.com/, which is syndicated by BusinessWeek.com, Reuters.com, PE Hub and others. Jeff's book on venture capital and entrepreneurship, Mastering the VC Game is an insider's guide for entrepreneurs on financing and company-building.

Prior to joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues.  He also worked with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, and served on the executive team of Athena Design, an object-oriented software start-up.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

You can follow Jeff on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bussgang.

President, Sales and Marketing and Executive Vice President, Nuance Communications

Steve joined Nuance in 2003 and has held several executive roles since that time, including executive vice president of Nuance's Worldwide Sales organization. He has repeatedly been voted as one of the "Top Influencers in the Speech Industry" and is a well-known industry spokesperson and presenter. Previously, Steve held CMO roles at SpeechWorks, Arbortext, Inc. and start-up VDOnet, and was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for PictureTel Corporation. Steve holds a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A. and Master's degree in Communications and Science from Boston University.

CEO & Co-Creator, Holland Mark

Chris Colbert is one of the founding partners of Holland Mark, and until his decision to re-launch the agency in 2007 he was the managing partner of Pile and Company, one of the leading advertising industry consulting firms.  From 1986 to 2001 he was the president of Holland Mark Advertising and a principal in its sister company BeNow, a marketing database technology firm.
 
In his various roles, Chris developed significant expertise in consumer brand strategies and integrated communications from his work with Blue Cross, TJ Maxx, Universal Studios, Ameritech, Polaroid, Liberty Mutual, and the Boston Globe; in database and relationship marketing, working with brands like Polaroid, Thomson Consumer Electronics (RCA), Scholastic, and Compaq; and a strong competency in addressing the challenges and opportunities in the interactive realm, from his direct involvement with tjmaxx.com and redlobster.com.
 
In addition to his leadership responsibilities, Chris is Chairman Emeritus of the Advertising Club of Greater Boston.  He holds a BA in History from Connecticut College and an International MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business.

Head of Industry, Google

Head of Online Video & Display, Retail Technology - Google 2009 - Present. Boston.
Display Regional Sales Manager - Google 2007 - 2009. Boston.

Regional Sales Director AOL MN - 2004 - 2007. Boston. Managed New England team and relationships with New England partners.
 
VP Sales - IMN (formerly IMakeNews) - 2002 - 2004.  Managed Outside and Inside Sales, Reseller relationships, as well as Client Support for IMN, a Marketing Services ASP. IMN provides an emarketing publishing solution including newsletter publishing, blogs and RSS distribution to over 1000 customers in the US, and partners with International  resellers. (2 years)

VP Sales - 2000 - 2002. Newmediary. Newmediary created private label buying directories which were housed on branded websites. Newmediary then sold advertising and sponsorship programs in these directories. Managed Inside and Outside Sales, as well as Customer Support. The assets were sold to CNet and became the foundation of a very successful White Paper Directory and publishing offering. (2 years)
 
Dartmouth College - Bachelor of Arts, Economics

Resident of Marblehead, MA, married to Michele, father of two - Morgan and Liam.

President, Compete

Scott is a veteran in online marketing with deep experience in advertising, analytics, digital media and Web technology and over 20 years of sales, operations and management experience.  Over the past decade, Scott has been working with world-class brands to help them improve their business performance through the online channel. 

Compete online measurement company that helps advertisers, publishers and agencies improve both their online and offline marketing effectiveness.  The company has won numerous awards and had been recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies by Deloitte, INC Magazine and earned Honomichl Top 50 status before being acquired in early 2008 .  Now within the world's largest marketing services company, the company is at the intersection of WPP, Kantar and Kantar Media digital strategies.

As President, Scott oversees the company's overall strategic direction, integration into Kantar/WPP, global expansion and day-to-day operations.  Under Scott's leadership the company has achieved average YOY revenue growth more than 50%, is the fastest growing internet measurement company with over 1,000 clients, is a recognized leader/brand and is profitable.  Joining Compete in 2002 as a member of the founding management team, Scott has been integral in building the company's vertical go-to-market strategy, aggressive product expansion, launch of Compete PRO, sale of the company and building both the domestic and international businesses.  Before taking over as President in 2008, Scott held the roles of Chief Client Officer and VP of Sales and Business Development. 

Prior to Compete, Scott served as Vice President of Sales, Corporate and Business Development for Personify, a web analytics and behavioral profiling software company.  Joining in 1999, Scott launched the original sales model (enterprise and SaaS), built the team including direct, partner and OEM channels, and lead strategic partnerships including an acquisition, fund raising and sale of the company. 

Prior to Personify, Scott was Vice President of Sales at AdKnowledge, a digital marketing company offering ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics technology which was acquired by CMGI/Engage.  Joining in 1997, Scott was a member of the founding management team and built the sales team and partnerships selling to both advertisers and agencies.

Over a period of ten years prior to AdKnowledge, Scott held various sales and marketing leadership roles in healthcare and health information technology companies.  This experience included both large and small company experience which most notably includes the sale of Cemax to Eastman Kodak PACS division in 1996.
Scott is a recognized leader with passion for the business and his team.  He is an active speaker and advocate for digital businesses.  Scott holds several board positions including advisory roles with Performable, SocialSphere and is a member of the WPP Digital Advisory Board.

Scott received his BS in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.  While a Penn Scott was a varsity athlete, All Ivy League award winner, member of Phi Gamma Delta and Friars Senior Honor Society.  Scott is also a graduate Phillips Exeter Academy.

Scott lives with his wife and children in Concord, MA and on most weekends can be found either coaching or cheering on local athletes.

Sarah Fay served as the CEO of Aegis Media North America, overseeing the operations of all of the Aegis Media operating units in the US and Canada.  Sarah previously served as the CEO of Carat and Isobar U.S.  Carat, a leading media and marketing services agency reinvented the agency model in 2007 after merging digital marketing powerhouse Carat Fusion with leading diversified media agency Carat USA.  In her role with Isobar, Sarah managed the growth and integration strategies for Molecular, iProspect, Freestyle Interactive and Ammo Marketing.

She is also a 20-year industry veteran of the media services business and a vanguard on media integration, Sarah established and managed an online media practice following roles in traditional media early in her career.  Sarah is the recipient on many prestigious awards, including ad:tech's 2007 "Industry Achievement Award," Advertising Age's "25 Women to Watch," Media Post's "Top 100 media Influentials," and OMMA's "Top 50 To Know in Online."  She was also one of B2B Magazine's Top 100 Business Marketing Influencers in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and recently was named a "Future Legend" by the Ad Club. 

Executive Director, Digitas Boston and Detroit/EVP

As Executive Director for Digitas Boston and Detroit, Barbara is responsible for operational and client leadership in those offices. She has over 17 years of experience leading relationships in CRM, loyalty, subscription, and retail marketing. Over the 10-plus years she has been with Digitas, she has managed client engagements designing and implementing digital marketing programs, Web builds, business processes, direct marketing initiatives, and customer-segmentation treatment strategies.

Before joining Digitas, Barbara was the director of marketing consulting at Veridiem, a software company building a measurement and analysis tool for ecommerce businesses. Prior to that, she was an associate at Exchange Marketing Group (EMG), where she served as a senior relationship manager designing customer strategies and marketing programs. Earlier experiences include working at GE Investments and completing the Business Analyst program with McKinsey & Company, Inc.

Barbara is on the board of the New England AAAA and leads the American Heart Association work for Digitas.

Barbara has an MBA from Harvard University and a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Brian Halligan, Founder and CEO, HubSpot

Brian Halligan is CEO of HubSpot, a marketing software company he co-founded in 2006 to help businesses transform the way they market their products by "getting found" on the internet.  Since its founding, HubSpot has already accumulated over 2,800 customers.  He is author of a book entitled Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs, which is in its fourth printing and has been translated into 6 languages.  He is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at MIT.  In his spare time, he sits on a few boards of directors, follows his beloved Red Sox, goes to the gym and is learning to play guitar.

If you want to know what Brian was up to prior to HubSpot, check him out on LinkedIn.  If you want to know what Brian is up to right now, check him out on Twitter.

Vice President- Global Consumer Engagement, Dunkin' Donuts

Scott Hudler is the Vice President-Global Consumer Engagement for Dunkin' Donuts, the largest coffee and baked goods chain in the world. In this role, he is responsible for all advertising, in-store merchandising, media, and interactive activity for the brand in the more than 9,700 Dunkin' locations in the United States and 31 countries worldwide.

Previously Hudler was the Vice President-Brand Marketing where he was responsible for all brand marketing activities including category management, oversight of the brand Marketing calendar, partnership marketing, and working with the Culinary team on menu innovation.

Hudler joined Dunkin' Donuts from Mars, Incorporated where he served as Brand Manager for the SNICKERS Brand. Prior to this role, he was the Senior Manager-Sponsorship Marketing leading the strategy development and activation of the company's sponsorship portfolio including relationships with the NFL and NASCAR.

Hudler graduated from Valdosta State University with a BFA degree in Fine Arts.

Co-Founder & CEO, Spring Partners

An experienced digital technology, media and marketing executive with a proven track record of identifying and developing new opportunities and new markets, Jeff Janer is Co-founder and CEO of Spring Partners, a venture backed consumer internet company responsible for Springpad (http://springpadit.com/).

Prior to founding Spring Partners in January, 2008, Janer was CMO, Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising technology and services company, where he was responsible for the company's marketing and product management initiatives.

Before joining Third Screen Media, Janer was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Britemoon, an online marketing solutions provider. In 2000, he was a founding partner of Traverse Partners, a firm providing strategic consulting and interim operational management to VCs and emerging growth companies. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President of Fidelity eBusiness. He was also President and CEO of Larry Miller Productions, a marketing communications firm acquired in 1998 by iXL, an Internet professional services firm, where he was an Executive Vice President.

Janer holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University.

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Harvard Business School

lBrian Kenny is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Harvard Business School, a role to which he brings two decades of experience in leading the marketing efforts of large global institutions. As HBS's first CMCO, Brian has oversight of the HBS brand globally, including coordinating the planning and implementation of all the School's marketing, communications and public relations efforts around the world. Working with the dean's executive team and leading HBS faculty, Brian oversees the alignment of branding, marketing, and media relations efforts across the HBS enterprise including the MBA program, executive education, external relations and HBS Publishing.

Brian has led multifunctional marketing teams in several global institutions spanning a number of industry sectors. Most recently he was Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Northeastern University, where he engineered a branding and marketing program to help propel the university into the top 100 nationwide. Previously he oversaw global marketing for management consultancy The Monitor Group and led marketing programs for Genuity, a $2 billion Internet company. In addition, he has held marketing leadership positions at various other organizations, including Arthur D. Little and Boston University.

Chief Technology & Strategy Officer, Communispace

Since 1996, Howard has been leveraging technology-enabled strategic services to help companies better engage with consumers online. As Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, he leads Communispace's Engineering, Product Management, Strategy and Innovation teams.

Immediately prior to joining Communispace, Howard was President of Molecular, a digital marketing agency. At Molecular, he helped build the business from a start-up to an award winning market leader, from a regional presence to a global organization, and worked with many leading brands including adidas, Nokia, Nikon and TD Bank. Earlier in his career, he led teams on classified complex software and hardware integration projects for the National Security Agency and the U.S. Air Force.

Howard has a BS in Computer Science & Mathematics from Binghamton University/SUNY, an MS in Software Engineering from Boston University and a Certificate in Corporate Strategy from MIT Sloan.

Outside the office, Howard is President and Chairman of the Board of Boston Cares, mentors entrepreneurs and start-up companies, lectures in MBA programs and volunteers at many non-profit organizations. One such effort includes the profound experience of volunteering for three weeks in Haiti to help a local community recover and rebuild after the devastating earthquake.

Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Constant Contact

Chris has been at Constant Contact® since February 2006 and oversees the worldwide sales and marketing team for the company. In his more than seven years at Constant Contact, Chris has served in a variety of senior sales and marketing positions, running the conversion, website, and product marketing teams, in addition to the EventSpot business unit. In that time, he has developed a deep knowledge of both Constant Contact's business and the small business market the company serves.

Prior to joining Constant Contact, Chris held a series of marketing and management positions at IBM Corporation and Rational Software Corporation, including driving IBM's internal worldwide deployment and adoption of Siebel Marketing CRM and leading Rational Software's Corporate Marketing Operations Organization.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA from Northeastern University.

VP, Product, TripAdvisor

Adam Medros heads worldwide product development for TripAdvisor and is a member of the company's management team.  Since joining the company in 2004, Medros has led efforts in search marketing and revenue optimization and has overseen developments to product functionality, merchandising, and acquisition integration.  He was instrumental in TripAdvisor's 2007 launch of travel applications onto the Facebook Platform.  These applications - Cities I've Visited, Local Picks, and Traveler's IQ Challenge --  have introduced the TripAdvisor brand to millions of new people around the world and generated a high volume of new content for the core site. 

Prior to joining TripAdvisor, Medros held Senior Analyst and Product Manager positions at Nordstrom.com, Amazon.com, and The Parthenon Group.  He serves on the board of oneforty.com, the Twitter app store and is an advisor to Care.com. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. 

General Partner, Matrix Partners

Originally a native of Venezuela, Antonio's love of technology began when he learned to program on an Apple II as a nine year old. That early spark inspired him to become a hacker and serial entrepreneur.

Most recently, Antonio was CTO of HP's consumer Imaging and Printing division where he led a wide array of projects in the areas of mass customization, e-reading, mobile platforms, and next generation web platforms for content consumption.

He came to HP through the acquisition of Tabblo, where he was founder and CEO. Tabblo, a Matrix-backed company, was a high-end photo site focused on bringing together the viral nature of online content publishing with the high margins of digital printing.

Prior to that, Antonio held a variety of engineering, product, and business development roles at MyPublisher (currently the leading photo book manufacturer in the US), abuzz Technologies (acquired by the New York Times), and the Boston Consulting Group.

Antonio's area of focus at Matrix include consumer Internet, mobile, software and Internet infrastructure.

Founder and General Partner, Data Point Capital

Senior Director, Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (NERD)

Sara Spalding is the Senior Director of Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center, where she leads the team responsible for Microsoft's R&D Campus and the company's technical and local outreach. Sara joined Microsoft in 1991, and has worked on wide range of products and technologies, including Windows, Internet Explorer, the .NET Framework and MSDN,  in a range of roles including Technical Evangelist, Program Manager and Product Unit Manager. After a short vacation from the company in 2005-2007,  she rejoined Microsoft in 2007 here in Cambridge. Sara has a BS in Computer Science and Math from the University of Puget Sound. She lives in Wellesley with her husband and two children.

Chief Digital Officer, CVS Caremark

Brian has over 20 years of strategic business development, operations and information technology experience in retail and consumer businesses. Brian currently is Chief Digital Officer for CVS Caremark where he is developing and leading the teams driving company-wide digital innovation efforts integrating retail, PBM and MinuteClinic businesses. Previously, Brian was SVP, Global eCommerce at Staples where he developed and led eCommerce teams driving multichannel digital growth across for b-to-c and b-to-b businesses globally. In this capacity, Brian launched Staples' Cambridge eCommerce Innovation Center (e.g. Velocity Lab) and led mobile and online channels for the company. Brian received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from Tufts University. He resides outside Boston, MA with his wife and three boys.