| [September 05, 2007] |
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Podbridge Taps Industry Veteran Brian Steel as CEO; Names Jeff Karnes as Vice President of Marketing & Products
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Podbridge Inc., the leading provider of advertising and measurement solutions for downloadable media, has named Brian Steel, former president of Yahoo!'s international search marketing, as chief executive officer. Steel has amassed decades of experience in both growing innovative young companies and leading multi-billion dollar corporations who have pioneered worldwide digital media services.
The company also appointed Jeff Karnes, another former Yahoo! executive, to lead its marketing and product efforts. Karnes has over ten years of experience delivering successful digital media solutions, both within the enterprise and directly to consumers, most recently as Yahoo!'s director for multimedia search and products.
Podbridge's founder and former CEO, Murgesh Navar, will remain as the chief strategy officer and member of the board of directors and will continue to be an integral part of the company's leadership team.
"Brian's operating expertise of scaling businesses in advertising and multimedia is the perfect background to take the company through its next stage of growth," said Navar. "Adding Jeff, a widely acknowledged leader in digital media, to the management team will bolster our ability to meet fast growing customer needs of monetizing downloads through measurable and accountable ad campaigns. Both have what it takes to lead a young company to success, and I am delighted to have them on board."
Steel, who also joins Podbridge's board of directors, most recently held the position of president of Yahoo! international search marketing. He was with Yahoo! for three years, following its 2003 acquisition of Overture (formerly GoTo.com), bringing 20 years of management experience to oversee a billion-dollar-plus division with operations in 20 countries comprising nearly 1,000 employees. Prior to Overture/Yahoo!, Steel was a managing director of Idealab, which created GoTo.com, and also president and CEO of Idealab Silicon Valley. He joined Idealab in 1999 after the sale of On Command Corp., where he was president and COO, to Liberty Digital.
Steel currently serves on the boards of directors for Pandora Media, Krugle, and MeeVee, and on the advisory boards of Care2, Dial Directions and Sharpcast. He has also served on the boards of directors for Airwave Wireless, Cooking.com, Cars Direct, Commission Junction, Desktop.tv, Discern Communications, eVoice, Omnilux, Scan Mobile, Sameday Technologies, Spun.com and Swell.com. He holds a B.A. in Economics and conducted graduate work in corporate strategy at Duke University, as well as international marketing and finance at the Pacific Asian Management Institute and negotiation at Harvard University.
"Podbridge is at the forefront of delivering solutions which allow content providers to monetize and track the use of their video and audio content, and will act as a catalyst to unleash the vast array of downloadable content and drive its widespread availability on the Web," said Steel. "Joining Podbridge at this moment in the evolution of digital media distribution is an incredible opportunity and I'm thrilled to be part of the company."
Karnes most recently held the position of director for multimedia search and products for Yahoo! where he led the company's efforts in building their video portal in addition to being responsible for video search, audio search, image search and a podcasting directory. Prior to Yahoo, Karnes was at WebEx where he managed their web seminar and audio/video presentation services. Previously, he worked at Virage, a leader and pioneer in video indexing and search, where he led the product and marketing efforts. In addition, Karnes held positions at Cinebase Software (renamed eMotion) leading the product in the category of digital asset management. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from Bucknell University and is a board member of the Cinequest Film Institute.
To view photos of Brian Steel and Jeff Karnes please visit: http://www.podbridge.com/home/index.php?action=show_kit
About Podbridge:
Podbridge enables publishers to unlock the value of their content. Founded in 2005, Podbridge provides advertising and audience measurement solutions for downloadable media. The company is located in Mountain View, CA and is funded by Mayfield Fund, Sutter Hill Ventures and Worldview Technology Partners. For more information, please visit http://www.podbridge.com.
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