Advisors

We are very proud of our advisor group and they are a fundamental part of Metamorphic’s strategy to help you accelerate your business. A day doesn’t go by that we don’t connect one of our entrepreneurs with one of our advisors.

Richard Baumer, an entrepreneur/advertising/marketing executive, founded VentureDirect, Worldwide in 1983. VentureDirect, Worldwide (VDW), provides cutting edge strategies for customer acquisition, direct marketing, sales lead generation, data collection, online media, search engine marketing, and media placement. At its height, VDW employed over 300 marketing, media, and technology professionals. In 2007 Mr. Baumer sold VDW to Plattform Holdings, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners (a Washington, DC middle market private equity firm). Baumer stayed on as CEO of VDW through 2009.

David Bell has over 40 years of experience in the marketing communications sector. David was previous Chairman and CEO of The Interpublic Group, Inc., one of the world’s largest marketing communications service companies and is now Chairman Emeritus. He previously held the positions of Chairman and CEO of True North Communications Inc., the world’s sixth largest global advertising and marketing communications holding company. David was also President and CEO of Bozell Worldwide, where he helped grow the agency from $12 million to over $500 million in revenues; and prior to that was President of Knox Reeves Advertising, which was acquired by Bozell. In his career, he has served virtually every kind of industry, from automotive to financial services; consumer packaged goods as well as business-to-business. David was previously a Senior Advisor with Google, a position that he now holds at AOL. David serves the industry as Past Chairman of The Advertising Council, The American Advertising Federation, The Advertising Educational Foundation and The American Association of Advertising Agencies and was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame by his peers in March 2007. Mr. Bell is an independent Director of Warnaco, Primedia, Lighting Science Group.

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Scott is a technical entrepreneur, startup advisor, and angel investor. He was Co-Founder and CTO of Invite Media, a venture backed advertising startup that was acquired by Google in 2010. Scott earned his Bachelors from University of Pennsylvania.

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Jon is CEO of Big Fuel a leading social media marketing agency. Jon is one of the advertising industry's most prolific innovators and entrepreneurs, having founded kirshenbaum and bond in 1987. kb was the world's largest organically grown firm with billings of $1b. In the mid‐1990s, Jon also co‐founded one of the first online media buying shops that was sold to Avenue A and later became part of Microsoft. kb most recently created a joint venture with Media Math to launch Varick Media Management, a digital media technology agency on the forefront of online media innovation. On the international front, Jon was chairman of Worldwide Partners, the world’s largest network of independent advertising agencies with over 100 offices in 63 countries. Jon is a board member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, God's Love We Deliver, and the Ad Council. He co‐authored Under the Radar (John Wiley and Sons) which became the blueprint for the modern agency and has been published in five languages.

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Roland DeSilva co-founded DeSilva+Phillips in 1996 and since then the firm has become a leading investment banking boutique in the media industry. To date, the firm has completed more than 150 transactions. DeSilva has held numerous operating positions within the publishing industry including CEO, COO, and international director with U.S. Business Press, International Thomson and The Chilton Company (a division of Capital Cities/ABC). Roland assists us with customer introductions, portfolio company exit strategy and general thought leadership.

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Michael Dolan is the President and Chief Operating Officer of IMG World, the leader in sports and entertainment management and programming. Previously Michael was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Viacom where he led the spin-off of Viacom from CBS. Prior to Viacom, Michael was Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam, the diversified marketing services company. He began his career at Young & Rubicam in 1995 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and he led the 1996 recapitalization of the company with Hellman & Friedman. The company successfully went public in 1998 before its sale in 2000 to WPP. Michael has also been an advisor to KKR and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Mattel, Inc. and Bacardi, Ltd.

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As Chief Operating Officer of Etsy.com, Adam Freed is responsible for day-to-day operations of one of the world’s fastest growing online marketplaces. Currently, Etsy hosts shops for more than 800,000 independent artisans from around the world who sell handmade and vintage goods. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Etsy employs 190 staffers. As Etsy continues to add staff and grow its product and business, Adam's work draws on his experience in helping technology companies scale.

Prior to joining Etsy, Adam was an architect of Google's international expansion. He joined Google in 2002 to build the international sales and operations function for the company’s fledgling AdWords business. Two years later, Adam founded Google’s International Product Management team. In that role, he led technical product managers, product marketers, and translation specialists to localize features, functionality, and content for all of Google’s products outside the United States. Following that assignment, Adam led Google’s 600-person Global Consumer Operations and Policy team.

Before beginning his work in technology, Adam was also an Emmy-award winning television reporter, anchor, and field producer at NHK-Japan Broadcasting, MSNBC and the NBC-station KNSD in San Diego, CA, among others. Adam is one of the few television journalists to receive the prestigious John S. Knight Fellowship, based at Stanford University.

Adam graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and has a Master’s degree from Yale Law School. He has lived in five countries and is a polyglot, conversant in English, Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, Turkish, Finnish, German, and Catalan.

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Stephen Gatfield is Executive Vice President at the Interpublic Group based in New York where he focuses on strategy. Stephen joined Interpublic after a long career at Leo Burnett where he was COO of Leo Burnett Worldwide and a member of the B/Com3 operating board. Stephen was appointed CEO of Lowe Worldwide in early 2006 to return the agency to viability. In the course of three years, Lowe was restructured into a focused, global ideas community and turned a multi-million dollar loss into substantial profitability. Advertising Age recognized Lowe as Turnaround Agency of the Year 2009.  Steve led IPG’s acquisition of Huge, a leading digital and e-commerce venture. He is a lead adviser for Believe Entertainment and an angel investor in emerging media technologies. He is a graduate of Bristol University and IMD.

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Michael Gusky is a serial entrepreneur and describes himself as a follower of Disruptive Innovation. Founder and CEO of GoldFellow LLC, precious metals dealers. Goldfellow faces the consumer using Internet site traffic, retail locations and peer to peer marketing strategies. Michael began his career in wholesale manufacturing of gold jewelry and is credited with the roll up strategy of the fine jewelry industry. Michael's former company, Aurafin partnered in 1999 with NEP (Wells Fargo Bank) private equity fund and reaching revenue of $400 million, ultimately sold the company in 2007 to Berkshire-Hathaway.

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Jason is Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Groupon where as a member of the senior management team he leads the company’s M&A and other strategic activities. Prior to Groupon, Jason was Director of Corporate Development team at Google, Inc. where works closely with the company’s executives to identify and execute strategic acquisitions and investments. Jason has led several major transactions at Google, including the acquisitions of DoubleClick, ITA Software, Invite Media, Feedburner and Teracent; investment and subsequent sale of a 5% stake in AOL; and the sale of Performics. Previously, Jason was a member of the Internet equity research team at Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. where he covered Internet advertising, online search, eCommerce and video game companies. He has also served as a strategy consultant at iXL, Inc. an Internet-solutions company (now part of Razorfish), and Andersen Consulting Strategic Services (now Accenture). Jason received his BA in Economics from Northwestern University (Cum Laude) and his MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago.

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Bill Hernandez brings more than 28 years of experience in the transaction processing industries. Currently, Bill consults with some of the largest credit card issuers and processors. Previously he was Executive Vice President of First Data Corporation in charge of their US card processing and output services and before that was Senior Vice President of MasterCard where he was responsible for their 50 largest US bank issuers. Prior to joining MasterCard, Bill held various senior executive positions at Citibank where he spearheaded global consumer banking and card product including Asia, Latin America and Europe.

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Geoff Judge co-founded 24/7 Media. He helped take 24/7 Media public in 1998 and sold for $649 million in 2007. Previously, he spent nine years at American Express in several roles, including vice president and general manager of the travel and corporate insurance group and vice president of marketing for the new card member group. Geoff assists Metamorphic with deal sourcing and vetting around monetization and customer acquisition.

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Erik Matlick is the CEO and founder of Madison Logic, a Lead Generation ad-serving company that is part of the Metamorphic portfolio. Prior to starting Madison Logic, Erik started Industry Brains, a business-to-business performance-based ad network that was sold to Marchex for $35 million in 2005. Erik has created more than 100 partnerships with major media companies, marketers and publishers.

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John McAteer oversees all aspects of Google's relationships with Retail, Tech, and Telco partners. Prior to joining Google, McAteer was VP, Sales and Merchandising, for PriceGrabber Inc where he was responsible for all sales and merchandising to retailers and manufacturers. Earlier in his career, McAteer was VP Sales and Business Development with Evite (IAC), VP Sales with PC World Online and VP Sales at Ziff-Davis Publishing. McAteer is an emeritus Board Member of Shop.org and graduate of Cal State Sacramento, with degrees in Finance and Economics.

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Jim McCann is a highly successful entrepreneur whose vision and energy have helped grow 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the company he founded in 1976, into the world’s leading florist and gift company. Jim’s focus on customer relationships and his willingness to embrace new technologies and channels helped change the way flowers and other gifts are marketed for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and special occasions. Jim has consistently managed to stay ahead of the curve in multi-channel retailing by embracing new technologies, such as 800 phone numbers and the web often long before other retailers recognized the opportunities that these developments would provide both for business and consumers. Today, 1-800-Flowers is one of the most successful digital commerce companies in the world

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Randy Meech is the Head of Engineering for Local and Mapping at AOL, where he oversees technology for Patch, MapQuest, and City’s Best. He came to AOL in July 2009 upon the acquisition of Patch, a community-specific news and information platform, where he was VP Engineering. Prior to his roles at Patch and AOL, Randy worked on several startups in the New York City area and worked at Google from 2002, primarily working on AdWords systems. Randy received his masters degree from Harvard University, and his bachelors from Fitchburg State College. Return to the top


David Nussbaum is chairman and CEO of F+W Media, one of the leading enthusiast based media companies in the US, focusing on ecommerce, books, magazines and events. He is formerly CEO of Penton Media, where he is credited with turning the company around and spearheading the successful exit to ABRY. David is a proven operator and at Metamorphic he will assist us with due diligence, portfolio strategy and business development. David loves to experiment with new technologies and often tests many of the products on behalf of F+W.

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Satya Patel is Director of Product Management at Twitter. He joined Twitter from Battery Ventures in early 2011. At Battery, Satya was a Partner focused on investments in the software, consumer Internet and digital media Before joining Battery in 2007, Satya spent several years at Google, most recently as Senior Product Manager on the AdSense team responsible for the development and launch of Google Ad Manager. Beginning in 2003, he helped to build the AdSense business through various partner development and product management activities. Prior to Google, Satya was a Senior Product Manager at DoubleClick, leading the company’s efforts in the search marketing business and working on various product and operational initiatives for the DART adserving platform. Earlier in his career, Satya was a Senior Associate at Impact Venture Partners, an early stage firm based in New York. Satya graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in Psychology from the College of Arts & Sciences. He is proud to serve on the board of KIPP Bay Area Schools.

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Mr. Proto joined Transactis as its chairman in 2006 and became CEO in 2007. Mr. Proto has been in the billing and payments industry since 1982 serving many of the country's largest corporations and financial institutions at two firms he started. In 1996, Mr. Proto founded REMITCO, the nation's largest traditional payment processor which was acquired by First Data in 2000 and he stayed on until 2006. Prior to First Data/REMITCO, Mr. Proto was a co-founder of Financial Telesis, a holding company for several businesses providing payment and data processing services to large banks and major corporations. Financial Telesis was acquired in 1992 by CoreStates Financial, which is now part of Wells Fargo Bank. For nearly 3 decades, Mr. Proto has been a prominent member of various financial services associations and has been a frequent speaker at conferences in the payments industry.

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Gokul Rajaram is Product Director Facebook Ads and was founder of Chai Labs, a Silicon Valley, Calif.-based Internet solutions start-up. Prior to Chai Labs, Gokul, a graduate of MIT's Sloan School of Management, was product management director and engineer for Google AdSense. He helped conceive and build AdSense in early 2003 and played a key role in its launch and growth into a multi-billion-dollar product line. Gokul also captained acquisitions for Google, including DoubleClick, AdScape and dMarc. Gokul assists us with due diligence on technology, product and monetization.

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Peter Sachse has been Chief Marketing Officer of Macy’s, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores, Inc.) since May 2007, and also serves as chairman and CEO macys.com, a position he has held since April 2006.

Sachse began his retail career in 1980 at Macy’s in Kansas City. Throughout the next nine years, he held positions of increasing responsibility. In 1992, he was named senior vice president and general merchandising manager at The Bon Marché in Seattle. Five years later, he was named executive vice president and general merchandise manager at Macy’s East in New York. In 1999, he was named vice chairman, director of stores at Macy’s East, and in 2001, became the president of The Bon Marché. Sachse was Macy’s first chief marketing officer when the Macy’s Corporate Marketing organization was formed in 2003.

Sachse serves as a member of the board of governors of the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund and as a director of The Knot.

Sachse, a native of Sheboygan, WI, is a finance graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

Sachse and his wife, Jini, have two children and reside in the New York City area.

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Dilip Venkatachari Dilip is CEO and co-founder of Compass Labs. He previously led Google’s mobile monetization business and had responsibility for all of PayPal’s risk and fraud management, card and bank processing relationships, and regulatory compliance. Dilip is a successful serial entrepreneur who has co-founded and led two successful start-up companies – CashEdge and CommerceSoft – after stints at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. Dilip has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, M.S. in electrical engineering from Rice University, and a B.Tech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

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Jim Warner brings a diverse and deep set of experiences as a leader in the media business to his work advising companies in digital marketing and media. Through his thirty year career, he has led a digital agency, broadcast television network, magazine publisher, TV distribution business and managed sales, marketing, business development, research, international and strategy teams. Jim built and led Avenue A in New York from 2000-2008. The agency was a pioneer in digital marketing. He also served in a senior role at aQuantive, parent company to Avenue A, from its inception through its sale to Microsoft in 2007. Before joining Avenue A, Jim held leadership positions at Primedia and CBS. He was previously President of Primedia’s magazine group with responsibility for over 200 consumer, special interest and trade magazines, trade shows and digital businesses. Prior to joining Primedia, Jim was President of the CBS Television Network, overseeing network sales, affiliate relations, marketing, research and new media. Before leading the television network, he ran CBS Enterprises, a worldwide content syndication and licensing business. Warner started his career at HBO, where he acquired, financed and sold feature films and original programming and developed pay television businesses in international markets. Jim received a BA with honors from Yale College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a Trustee of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of New York City.

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David E. Weisman is the President and CEO of InSite Wireless Group, a telecommunications tower and infrastructure company headquartered in Alexandria, VA. He was previously President, CEO and founder of Mountain Union Telecom, also a tower operator from 1999 until its sale in 2006 to Crown Castle International for $300 million. David assists us with our mobile opportunities.