Steve Jillings
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Steve Jillings brings a unique blend of vision and ability to execute to the companies he becomes involved with. He is now applying his skills at Vantage Media. Vantage Media is the Category Leader in Performance Based Search Marketing. Steve began his association with Vantage in September 2006 and was instrumental in raising $70MM of investment capital. He joined the company as CEO in February 2007, concurrent with the closing of the investment.
Prior to Vantage, Steve was President and CEO of FrontBridge Technologies, Inc. Steve joined FrontBridge in March 2002 and was responsible for taking the company from a startup to a global leader in managed messaging services. Tasked with driving the company's strategic direction and growth, Steve built a management team focused on execution. Raising $27MM in three rounds of funding, the team proceeded to build a broad portfolio of managed services combined with the largest global distribution footprint in the managed messaging space. This led to the successful sale of the company to Microsoft in August 2005 for more than $200MM.
Steve has more than 25 years of business building experience, successfully creating seven companies from concept to commercialization and eventual liquidity.
Robert Chrone
Chief Financial Officer
Robert Chrone, Chief Financial Officer, has more than 20 years experience in private and public company environments. He spent three years at FrontBridge Technologies working with the CEO to grow the company from 15 employees and 35 customers to almost 200 employees and more than 3,000 customers. At FrontBridge, Robert was responsible for finance and administrative functions, and managing the company’s operations. During his tenure at FrontBridge, the company completed a recapitalization and three VC lead rounds of funding. Robert was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the sale of FrontBridge to Microsoft in August 2005. Prior to working with FrontBridge, Robert was CFO and COO of Atlas World Holdings, a private equity investment firm. Robert took an active role with Atlas portfolio companies and personally led the growth and sale of three Atlas companies. Prior to Atlas, Robert was Corporate Controller and then Manager of Finance, Legal & Administration at Dual Drilling, a $400M publicly-traded offshore oil and gas drilling company. Robert holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Darren Wiebe
Chief Technology Officer
Darren Wiebe brings 20 years of experience in the technology services industry as a consultant, executive, and entrepreneur. As CTO of Vantage Media, Darren currently leads a number of critical teams including Strategy Incubation, Business Intelligence, Network Operations, and Implementation – as well as overseeing several emerging business channels. With an extensive background in both technology and business integration, Darren provides a unique ability to bridge the two worlds. Prior to Vantage, he led a technical operations center for Microsoft/FrontBridge which he grew from concept to 50 employees in 18 months. This group was instrumental in facilitating growth by scaling email spam analysis, expanding network operations, and enhancing technical support capacity. Prior to Microsoft, Darren was CTO of a national Managed Services provider in Canada and was previously President of a leading technology integration and consulting firm.
Neil Kaplan
Senior Vice President of Operations
Neil Kaplan, Senior Vice President of Operations, oversees day-to-day business operations for Vantage. Neil has launched numerous successful Web businesses, taking them from start-up to tens of millions of dollars in revenue in rapidly changing, highly competitive consumer environments. He has specialized in the migration of consumers and revenue from traditional media to new media. In a 20-year career before joining the Vantage team, he held leadership positions in management, marketing, sales and strategy with Internet Brands, Universal Studios, The Los Angeles Times and Bain and Company. Neil holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School – University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Jason Anderson
Vice President, Search
Jason Anderson, Vice President of Search, oversees SEM operations for Vantage Media. As the first business employee at Vantage Media, Jason played a critical role in developing the processes and strategies that led to the company’s award-winning growth. During his decade-long online marketing career, Jason has held production, editorial and promotional positions at ARTISTdirect and Overture Services (now Yahoo! Search Marketing).
Ron Claypool
Vice President, Sales
Ron Claypool, Vice President of Sales, is responsible for Sales and Client Services at Vantage Media. Ron brings over 20 years experience with building and managing high-performance sales teams for technology-based companies. Prior to joining Vantage Media, Ron was Director of Sales at Microsoft Corporation. While at Microsoft, Ron was responsible for North American Sales and Sales Operations within the Exchange Hosted Services business unit. Prior to Microsoft, Ron held senior management positions at several global technology companies including Informix Software, Silicon Graphics and Brio Software. Ron began his career at Kansas State University where he taught Public Speaking and Speech Communication courses. Ron holds a B.S degree from Bradley University and an M.S. degree from Illinois State University.
Greg Isaacs
Vice President, Incubation
Greg Isaacs, Vice President, Incubation, is responsible for incubating and launching new initiatives for Vantage Media. Over his thirteen-year career, Greg has gained extensive experience in managing many facets of business and technology. Greg comes to Vantage Media from LeadPoint, the leading online lead generation exchange, where he was Vice President and General Manager, Marketplaces. Prior to LeadPoint, Greg was the director of eBay's Developers Program and was responsible for making eBay the largest and most innovative web services platform. His accomplishments earned him a place on CNN/Business 2.0's "50 People Who Matter" list for 2006. Prior to joining eBay in 2001, Greg was a technology investment banking analyst and associate for Prudential Securities and Thomas Weisel Partners.
Greg is a graduate of Brandeis University and the London School of Economics with a Bachelor of Arts. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Sumant Sridharan
Vice President, Marketing
Sumant Sridharan, Vice President of Marketing, oversees all marketing initiatives including corporate branding, public relations, portal strategies, and new verticals. Prior to Vantage, Sumant was a member of the leadership team of Oversee.net, where he led product marketing and development and subsequently was the General Manager for the company’s travel and social networking businesses. Over the last 12 years, Sumant has held leadership positions in online marketing, product management, and technology with companies like Yahoo!, The .tv Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. Sumant began his career in management consulting leading large-scale systems implementations with Ernst & Young.
Sumant holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and BA in Economics from UC Berkeley as well as an MBA with honors from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Sergey L. Sundukovskiy
Vice President, Engineering
Sergey L. Sundukovskiy, Vice President of Engineering, oversees day-to-day Development, Quality Assurance, Project Management and sustaining Engineering efforts for Vantage. Sergey has over 10 years of experience in capacities ranging from Senior Architect to Vice President of Engineering, including experience in building IT organizations from the ground up in start-ups as well as Fortune 100 companies. He has specialized in internal and off-shore application development, project and resource management, cross-functional training and strategic planning. Sergey holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego and an M.S. in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Information Technology Management from the School of Business and Technology, Capella University.
