Chris Cunningham, co-founder and CEO
Chris co-founded appssavvy, an activity advertising technology company and serves as CEO. His and appssavvy's vision has pioneered a new advertising model focused on people's activity.
The vision of social activity advertising has established Chris as a recognized thought leader. He frequently speaks at industry conferences and forums, including ad:tech, IAB, iMedia and 4A's events, and comments on the latest developments in the social space live on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, or in leading publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and USA Today. For insight into Chris' unique perspective, read The New York Times' Corner Office.
He also serves as co-chair of the IAB Social Media Committee and in 2010 and 2011 was a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award, an achievement which was led by Chris' leadership in driving appssavvy to profitability in less than two years after founding and every subsequent quarter. Today, appssavvy has more than 60 employees in four offices across the U.S. and is recognized as a great place to work by Crain's New York Business' Best Places to Work in NYC - an honor won in 2009 and 2010 - and one of Advertising Age's Best Places to Work in Marketing and Media in 2010.
Chris graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro with a bachelor's of arts degree in Economics & Marketing and is based in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @chrisappssavvy.
Michael Burke, co-founder and president
As Co-founder and President of appssavvy, Michael is rethinking the delivery and reception of advertising. Through partnerships and emerging products, Michael and his team have led countless social media companies and large publishers in the creation and evolution of their advertising offering. Additionally, the team has helped brands and agencies navigate the ever-changing landscape of digital advertising by creating effective, yet, simple ways to leverage what people are doing on the Web.
Today, appssavvy is a platform that enables brands to connect with people through social activity. With more than 50 employees and being named one of the best places to work by Crain's New York Business and Advertising Age, appssavvy continues to strengthen its position as a leader in social media marketing.
While leading the Business and Product Development teams, Michael supports appssavvy's platform, which services both clients and partners. Additionally, he is provides thought leadership and recognizes industry trends and marketplace needs. Michael is a member of the Social Media Advertising Consortium, a mentor at Excelerate Labs, contributing author at outlets such as iMedia and MediaPost, and has spoken at many events including ad:tech, digiday, Digital Hollywood, IAB and Adweek Social Media Strategies, to name a few.
Prior to appssavvy, Michael was an early employee at HotJobs.com, before it was sold to Yahoo! He led large-scale sales teams at Yahoo! for seven years and eventually made his way to Freeebs, where he got his start in applications and the social media space.
Michael has a Marketing Degree from Boston College. You can find him at www.about.me/michaelburke and follow him on Twitter @micburke27.
Paul Olliver, COO
A Board member and angel investor since day one, Paul joined the executive team in 2010 to assume the role of COO. In this position Paul is responsible for overseeing all support departments and the organizational structure of the company, as well as managing the interaction between a variety of the company's internal and external stakeholders. It is his responsibility to ensure that all departments have the information, process and resources they need to continually enhance the products and services for their clients and partners.
Paul Olliver has been in online media since its inception, and in that time has held senior roles with Klipmart, Yahoo!, Overture, and DoubleClick. He has held a variety of roles in his career, and regularly contributes to the industry in the form of articles, panels and events. His most recent role was as CEO of Wider Wake, an angel investment network specializing in digital media advertising, and consequently he brings an holistic and strategic view of the market place to his new role at appssavvy.
He is a UK national and received his MBA from Warwick Business School in England, but has spent most of his adult life abroad, predominantly in Hong Kong, New York, London and various capitals across Europe.
Gary Larking, CRO
Gary joined appssavvy as its chief revenue officer (CRO) in August 2011. As CRO, he is responsible for leading and managing sales, sales development and partner solutions which drive revenue and completes the customer experience with appssavvy’s social activity advertising adtivity platform.
Gary brings a strong media technology background and extensive experience to appssavvy. He joined the company from FOX Sports Media Group where he served as senior vice president of sales leading the interactive organization. During his nearly six years at FOX, Gary was responsible for driving digital advertising and revenue generating and marketing partnerships for the media company’s array of digital properties.
Previously, he spent nearly eight years at Microsoft’s MSN division as senior director of sales. Gary was responsible for developing and leading MSN’s largest regional sales team building advertising agency and direct relationships with brands.
He graduated from Siena College and is based in New York City.
Rahul Daterao
Rahul joined appssavvy as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in late 2010. As CTO, he is responsible for all technical development across appssavvy and leads global technology teams encompassing product development, infrastructure and engineering.
Most recently, Rahul served as CTO of KickApps, a leading social publishing platform, where he led over the last five years the company's technology initiatives and teams, and provided strategic technological guidance for new products and features, platforms and services, and network build-outs. Rahul's experience spans nearly 15 years and includes senior technical positions at financial institutions, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
He specializes in architecting highly scalable social media platforms and enterprise-class software systems. Rahul is fluent in Java and PHP based open source web application frameworks and also an expert in new technologies, including Facebook, Android, and iPhone app development.
He graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Mumbai and earned his master's degree in computer science from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Charles Parra, vice president of product development
Charles joined appssavvy as its vice president of product development in May 2011 and is responsible for leading the company’s overall product roadmap focused on social activity advertising and the adtivity technology platform.
He brings more than 20 years of technology experience to appssavvy. Charles joined the company from Tremor Media where he served, most recently, as vice president of product management. Charles spent more than four years driving Tremor Media’s market-leading and differentiated online video advertising monetization platform and network.
Previously, he was senior director of product management at The FeedRoom, an Internet video communications company. Charles also ran his own consulting firm, Parra Development and was vice president information technology for Guggenheim.com, an online destination for the arts. Also, Charles was the chief technology officer at Interep National Radio Sales and led the development of RadioExchange.com, an online media exchange to facilitate the purchasing of national radio advertising. He holds a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and is a member on the IAB Digital Video Committee.
Tyson Daughtery, vice president of strategic partners
Daugherty arrives at appssavvy from Future US, where he was vice president, Internet development. At Future US, Daugherty steered online strategy and execution, and managed a team of more than 30 employees responsible for building and operating online products in video games, technology, sports, entertainment and music sectors. Through a combination of building, buying, partnering and marketing, he drove growth of the online product portfolio from seven million to 20 million monthly unique users.
Previously, Daugherty was general manager and vice president of business development at Bolt, where he worked with appssavvy's Cunningham. Daugherty is an entrepreneur at his core and previously founded two Internet companies, Gigmania and Pixelfixx, in the music and gaming sectors respectively. Daugherty holds an MBA from Insead in France, where he founded iMEG (Insead Media and Entertainment Group) and is a graduate of Tulane
Sushene Swenson, vice president of operations
Swenson joins appssavvy from Dulcinea Media where she served as COO and CFO. Previously, Swenson spent three years at 24/7 Real Media, now part of WPP, one of the world's leading communications services group. At 24/7 Real Media, she was responsible for driving the publicly-traded company with 20 offices in 12 countries' Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for the first time. Swenson accomplished the feat in seven months, managing dozens of employees and consultants. In addition, her team's efforts were used as an 'example client' by 24/7 Real Media's auditors when telling their clients about best practices for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
Steve Stratz
Chris Cunningham
