Team
Chad Gracia - CEO & Founder
Chad has run successful web businesses since 1994. After selling an online tutoring company in 1999, he founded ActorTips.com, a blog he runs in his part-time, which has generated more than $250,000 in revenues. All Tipzu sites use the tools and insights that Chad gained from his successful blog. As a consultant, Chad has a history of spotting trends early: he briefed Pentagon leaders in 2000 about China's growing energy demands and counseled the Saudi Arabian Central Bank (SAMA) against investing several billion dollars in the euro, months before its unimpressive launch. Before focusing full-time on Tipzu, he was a communication advisor to leading businesses and governments around the world.
Paul Quicker - CTO
Founder of Chesapeake Consulting, a 40-person firm that provides network and database development and support to various federal- and private sector clients.
Johannes Bhakdi - Advisory Board
Former Executive Director, BBDO Growth Division. Johannes has worked in executive positions in international marketing networks and serves as chairman of the Executive Science Network, a network of blue chip marketing executives. Johannes is an expert in new media advertising and the marketing and monetization of blogs. Johannes also serves as board member at Klatcher.com and Sophotec VC.
Ari Buchalter - Advisory Board
Ari is Chief Strategy & Analytics Officer at MediaMath, the leading provider of online media buying solutions in the fast-growing marketplace of advertising exchanges. Prior to this, Ari was a Senior Partner at Rosetta Marketing where he led the Digital Media & Technology practice, and was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company in their Global Media & Entertainment practice. Ari's first career was in academia, receiving a PhD in Astrophysics at Columbia University and pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech. Ari brings to Tipzu nearly a decade of management consulting experience and expertise on the cutting edge of online advertising.
Sean Cross - Advisory Board
Former Executive VP and Operations Officer at iAmplify, a leading digital media publishing firm. In his career, he has raised more than $10 million in investment and has overseen annual growth of 300% for 3 years running. Sean brings extensive operational experience and growth management to the Tipzu team. Director of IT, Sales, and Marketing at HarperCollins Publishers (Newscorp) from 1998-2005.
Zachary Karabell - Advisory Board
President of River Twice Research, an independent economic research and consulting company. Previously, he was Chief Economist at Fred Alger Management, a New York-based investment firm that manages approximately $15 billion in mutual funds and institutional accounts. Educated at Columbia, Oxford and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D., Karabell has taught at leading universities, including Harvard and Dartmouth, and has written widely on economics, investing, history and international relations.
Peter Lepeska - Board
Peter is VP of Product Development at ICT, maker of www.accelenet.com, where he is responsible for building state-of-the-art network optimization software. In addition to his work leading the engineering team, he played a key role in orchestrating partnerships with Cisco, Microsoft, and others. His efforts were rewarded with the successful multi-million dollar acquisition of ICT by networking and satellite communications leader ViaSat in 2007. He and Chad came up with the idea for Tipzu over a glass of Rioja in July, 2007.
Wayne Martino - Counsel
A partner at Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, LLP, Wayne is a leader in assisting technology companies through critical growth phases and has developed strategic alliances with companies such as GE, IBM, Nortel Networks, Williams Communications, US West, and Pasteur-Merieux-Connaught. Recently, he handled the $23 million acquisition of MediaBistro by JupiterMedia; BSW has recently handled nearly $1 billion in deals.
Gary Mueller - Advisory Board
Chairman and CEO of Institutional Investor and ISI Emerging Markets, one of the most widely-used business information services for emerging markets. ISI employs 450 people and has offices in twenty-five countries. A graduate of Harvard, Harvard Business School, and a Fulbright Scholar, Gary brings his extensive financial and business expertise to Tipzu.
Brad Stewart - Board
Director of Enterprise Systems at David Yurman, one of America's leading fine jewelry and timepiece designers.
Laurel Touby - Advisory Board
Founder of MediaBistro.com, site for journalism, publishing and other media professionals. In one of the most talked-of media sales of 2007, JupiterMedia paid $23 million in cash for her site, which currently claims more than 5.4 million page views per month. Laurel brings to Tipzu her experience growing a small community website into a leading media firm.