Advisory Board

John Hadl

BrandinHand, Inc

Managing Partner & Founder

Picture: John Hadl

John Hadl is founder and CEO of Brand in Hand, a company that advises mobile companies and major brand marketers engaged in the mobile marketing arena. In 2006, he was responsible for more than 50 “in market” mobile campaigns for his various clients. Hadl is often credited for being a primary driver of growth within the mobile industry.

Hadl has served as a strategic adviser to Procter & Gamble for mobile since 2005 and is currently chief mobile strategy adviser. He also provides counsel to more than a dozen emerging media companies providing mobile marketing and brand strategy advice in the areas of mobile messaging, TV and video, content downloads, search and mobile web media and trend breakthroughs. Hadl serves on various boards and is presently chairman of the board for Total Beauty, Inc. In April 2007, BrandWeek dubbed him as one of the “Marketers of the Next Generation,” the publication's highest honor and in July 2007, Advertising Age acknowledged Hadl as one of its distinguished 40 Under 40 executives.

Prior to founding Brand in Hand, Hadl was the managing director of Quigley-Simpson Interactive where he was responsible for leading Quigley-Simpson's clients into the world of emerging communications. At Quigley, Hadl pioneered many of the cutting-edge U.S. mobile initiatives. Hadl and his team implemented the first-ever U.S. use of a 30-second DRTV spot dedicated to driving a mobile response. Additionally, Hadl sourced and executed one of the first-ever “pure” brand sponsorships of a mobile game in the United States. Over his career, Hadl's clients have included entertainment companies, consumer package goods companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies and various technology companies.

Before his tenure with Quigley-Simpson, Hadl was the chief strategy officer and co-founder at Enverta, a business-to-business marketplace for the consumer goods industry, which he led to a successful acquisition by the NCA in 2001. Hadl also held the EVP of corporate development and strategy position at Creative RX. Hadl began his career as a corporate lawyer in New York City at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Hadl frequently keynotes and participates in industry leading events. He holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law and is currently an adviser to the prestigious venture capital firm U.S. Venture Partners.

Tim Hanlon

VivaKi Ventures

Executive Vice President/Managing Director

Picture: Tim Hanlon

Tim Hanlon is Executive Vice President/Managing Director of VivaKi Ventures, the strategic partnership and investment arm of VivaKi – the digital services hub of marketing services agency holding company Publicis Groupe, S.A. – comprising Starcom MediaVest Group, Zenith Optimedia Group, Digitas, and Denuo. He is chiefly responsible for the solicitation, negotiation and oversight of the unit's strategic partnership and investment activity – focused exclusively on paradigm-changing “new media” platforms and technologies. His current role is an outgrowth of his previous work as head of ventures activity for both Denuo and Publicis Groupe Media, and includes formal advisory and directorial positions with over three dozen early-stage companies.

Prior to founding the Denuo Ventures and PGM Ventures practices, Hanlon was Senior Vice President/Director, Emerging Contacts for Starcom MediaVest Group. He was chiefly responsible for all US client activity and agency initiatives in the field of emerging media technologies, including the firm's ground-breaking TV 2.0 Practice, centered around evolutionary television platforms such as interactive/enhanced television, on-demand video, digital video recording, interactive program guide navigation, addressable advertising, and digital broadcasting/datacasting.

Hanlon has over 20 years of traditional and interactive agency media experience including roles as Vice President/Director, Strategy & Business Development for the Digital Marketing Group of Chicago-based marketing services agency Frankel, and Director of Interactive Media at Creative Alliance in Louisville, KY. He also served as the Advertising Media Manager for the in-house agency of credit card issuer MBNA America in Wilmington, DE, USA.

Hanlon also has wide-ranging journalism experience, including production and writing stints at CBS News, Sports Illustrated and the Voice of America.

Among numerous advertising and television industry activities, Hanlon was Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Advanced Television Committee from 2001-05, a founding member of the Steering Committee of the Innovation in Digital Advertising (IDiA) Consortium, and a founding member of the National Academy of Media Arts & Sciences (NAMAS). In 2004, he was an inaugural recipient of Interactive Television Today's Leadership in Interactive Television Award, and has been named as one of MEDIA Magazine’s “100 People to Know.” His insights into the future of media and advertising are regularly seen in major electronic, print and trade press outlets.

Hanlon holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Georgetown University.

Scott Ehrlich

Digworks, Inc.

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

Picture: Scott Ehrlich

Mr. Ehrlich has more than a decade of top-tier television and Internet management experience. He has managed teams of more than 200 people and has been responsible over the past 6 years for the buying and selling more than $200MM in digital content in addition to numerous high profile strategic deals. Mr. Ehrlich is widely recognized as a leader in the creation and distribution of digital media products.

Mr. Ehrlich has negotiated landmark deals with major media entities in news (CNN, ABC News, The Weather Channel, CNET, WSJ.com), sports (NBA, NFL, NASCAR, MLB, PGA Tour, FOX Sports) and entertainment (E! Entertainment, CBS (Big Brother and Survivor), iFilm, Starz On Demand, Playboy) for the carriage, distribution and packaging rights to their content over IP, at various times managing relationships with four of the largest media companies in the world (Viacom, Disney, Time Warner and News Corporation). He has also negotiated distribution relationships with the Internet's largest portals (Yahoo, AOL, Google and MSN), as well as some of the biggest video aggregators in the mobile world (MobiTV, Sprint TV, Qualcomm, and Verizon Wireless) and many others.

Prior to forming Impulse Media and Red Tie, Mr. Ehrlich served as Vice President of Media Acquisition and Distribution for RealNetworks (real.com). In that role, he developed strategies, negotiated, implemented and managed product deals and relationships for the GoldPass and SuperPass services and drove growth of RealNetworks' subscription services to more than 1 million subscribers. Previously, Mr. Ehrlich was Executive Vice-President and General Manager for Rival Networks (rivals.com), where he oversaw all aspects of the business including advertising sales, e-commerce, content, business development, marketing, public relations and creative services. At Rivals, Mr. Ehrlich grew the network from 350 niche sports sites to over 800, while fostering revenue growth in excess of 400%. He developed and executed the operations plan, business strategy and documentation for Rivals' S-1 filing, secured financing and closed significant distribution deals.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Ehrlich was the senior vice president and executive producer of News America Digital Publishing, with responsibility for all editorial, production, technology and product development for News Corporation's content-based digital publishing ventures, including FOX.com, FoxNews.com, tvguide.com and FoxSports.com. Mr. Ehrlich has years of television management and consulting experience launching cable channels for Fox and NBC, as well as working with Twentieth Television, Paramount and McGraw-Hill Broadcasting.

Mr. Ehrlich currently serves as a board member of Orion Data Analysis Corporation and on the advisory boards of the Digital Media Master’s program at the University of Washington as well as Lighting CD, Inc., SkyClix, Inc., Roundbox, Inc., Zumobi, Inc. (formerly ZenZui) and Rhythm Networks, Inc.

Mr. Ehrlich received his master’s degree from The Graduate School of Political Management, now part of George Washington University and his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College.

Chris Hoerenz

Crispy Gamer Inc.

Chief Operating Officer & Founder

Picture: Pat Binkley

Chris Hoerenz is a leading direct marketer and new media executive with 20 years of consumer marketing experience. As COO of Crispy Gamer Inc., Hoerenz is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the newly funded venture, a news and community site targeting serious video game enthusiasts. Prior to founding Crispy Gamer Inc., Hoerenz was the Chief Marketing Officer for eMusic, the number two digital music retailer behind iTunes. At eMusic Hoerenz was responsible for driving eMusic's revenue and subscriber growth, as well as overseeing traditional marketing functions, label relations and strategic alliances. Under his guidance as CMO, eMusic more than tripled its subscriber base and revenues since re-launching its service in late 2004 grabbing over 11 % of the digital download market share.

Before joining eMusic, Hoerenz was CEO and Founder of Targeted Media Solutions (TMS), where he created and patented a unique targeting technology designed to improve the acquisition efforts of many of the largest direct marketing companies, including Bertelsmann, Conde Nast, Bookspan, Disney, Time Inc., and Readers Digest.

Hoerenz has also served in an executive role at various entertainment-focused companies including President and COO of PCH.com, the online service launched by Publishers Clearing House; Vice President of Marketing for CDNOW; and Director of Marketing Planning and Analysis at Columbia House.

Hoerenz graduated from NYU’s Stern School of Business with a Masters degree in Business Administration in 1992.

Greg Stuart

Co-Author: What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds

Former CEO of IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau

Picture: Greg Stuart

Greg Stuart is the former CEO & President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for the interactive advertising & marketing industry. He led the industry from $6 billion to $20 billion annually and grew the IAB's business itself +500% in four years. The IAB serves Internet Media giants such as AOL, CNET, Google, MSN, NBC, Disney, and Yahoo!, among others.

His recent book, What Sticks outlines a new approach to advertising based on research against $1 billion in advertising spending over a five-year period. Ad Age identified What Sticks as “One of 10 books you should have read in 2006,” and was in the top 15 of all books sold on Amazon.com just after launch.

Greg is a thought leader in the digital media and advertising arenas: Internet (search, display, video, lead gen, etc.), Mobile, IPTV & beyond. He was selected by Ad Age as one of “10 Who Made Their Mark” in 2006 (along with Jay-Z and others).

Greg has more than two decades of experience in Internet start-ups, digital media and traditional advertising. Before the IAB, he was CEO of DeltaClick, Inc.; a venture backed advertising technology company in San Francisco, and served as a Venture Partner at Outlook Ventures. Prior, he was a senior executive at Flycast Network (IPO'd ’99 and sold to CMGI), Cars.com (No 1 in category), & Sony Online Ventures. Greg also from '93 to '96 built the Interactive division at the world's leading direct marketing agency, Young & Rubicam's Wunderman subsidiary.

Greg recently served on the Board of Directors for Rapt, Inc. in San Francisco (sold to Microsoft in 2008), Allyes in China (sold to Focus Media-FMCN in 2007). He is on the Advisory Boards of other venture-backed businesses Adify [Internet Networks], Anchor Intelligence [Search], Veoh [Online Video], Tremor Media [Online Video], Vizu [Internet Polling Network], HitViews [Internet Talent Agency], Komli [Ad Networks], Zumobi [Mobile], AdInfuse [Mobile], CampusU [Social Networking] and myYearbook [Social Networking] -- plus non-profits SEMPO, IAB Mexico and recently the Advertising Research Foundation. He is also member of the National Speakers Association and speaks around the world on issues in Advertising and Internet Marketing.

Greg has a BA in Economics from the University of Washington. He lives in Bridgehampton, NY with his wife Pamela, twin daughters, and son.