 Catherine Cook
“Most Likely to Lead the Free World”
Talk to Catherine Cook for any length of time and you get the distinct feeling you don't need to remember this girl's name because you'll be hearing it often in the years to come. After all, any sixteen-year-old who can convince her older brother to write a $250,000 check must have even more up her sleeve.
As a teen, Catherine is a self-declared "nerd" and proud of it. She's a varsity gymnast with a boyfriend and a 4.0 GPA who, in her dwindling spare time, attends events like the National Youth Leadership Forum in Defense, Intelligence, and Diplomacy.
As a myYearbook.com "super member," Catherine logs onto the site as much as possible in order to have the true user experience. She works more than 25 hours per week generating and testing ideas to improve the site.
Oh, and Catherine's also the one who always knows where Geoff or Dave has parked the car. Today, myYearbook.com. Tomorrow, the world.
 Dave Cook
"Most Likely to Change the World and Have Fun While Doing It"
In many ways, Dave Cook is the poster child for the blissfully normal American teenage experience. Fun-loving and popular, he chats on AIM and he likes school well enough to earn decent grades and a good SAT score, but he'd rather hit his local Starbucks with his friends than hit the books. Before he launched myYearbook.com, on most school nights he could be found skiing, not studying, at Mountain Creek Ski Resort not far from his hometown of Skillman, NJ.
There's less time in Dave's life for skiing these days (though perhaps there's even more of a need for those Starbucks runs). That's because he now oversees a staff of computer programmers constantly working to improve myYearbook. It's a tall order for a high school senior, but it's all part of Dave's plan to build his Internet site, myYearbook.com, into a social networking force capable of, in his words, "crushing MySpace."
Most college-bound American teens will be busing dishes in restaurants, interning with local businesses or simply hanging out on the beach this summer. Not Dave Cook. He'll be honing his Internet mogul identity, working full-time in his company's headquarters in New Hope, PA (How many guys can say that?). Then it's off to the University of Colorado, Boulder in the fall where he'll spread the myYearbook concept to college students. Watch MediaMetrix in September for an uptick in membership.
 Geoff Cook
"Best Older Brother Two Teenagers Could Ever Ask For"
If there is a gene for Internet entrepreneurship, then it must run in the Cook family. Geoff Cook, Dave and Catherine's worldly wise older brother, already has one successful online venture under his belt. While a Harvard undergrad, he founded a set of online writing and editing services, EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com, and he's been using the lessons learned from those businesses to assist Dave and Catherine's dreams of worldwide web domination.
As his younger siblings can attest, when you're starting a business online, it's very helpful to have a close, personal relationship with someone who knows how to hire programmers in India, lease server space in Texas, and start conversations with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. But Geoff's not only the executive with the know-how, he's still got the fire in his belly for another Internet success.
Geoff trusts Dave and Catherine's youth culture instincts and speaks passionately about the family plan to grow myYearbook.com into an online tool that will go way beyond banner advertising to accomplish some truly innovative things in the world of social networking. What more could two teenage founders want in an older brother?
 Don Eyer
Don is the VP of Operations - Safety Division. He comes to MyYearbook.com with an extensive background in Law Enforcement, Computer Crime Investigation, and Internet Safety. His educational background includes a BA from Colorado State University in Criminal Justice and Education and a paralegal certification from the University of Northern Colorado.
Don started his career in Law Enforcement in Northern Colorado. During these 23 years he was a Detective with the Greeley Colorado Police Department, an Investigator for the 19th Judicial District and a Grand Jury Investigator for the State of Colorado. Don has a background in Computer Crime Investigations and was a member of the Colorado Association of Computer Crime Investigators. (C.A.C.C.I.)
Don left law enforcement and joined eBay in their early years. He built the Trust and Safety . Fraud Division up from its infancy. When eBay purchased Half.com, Don transferred to build up and run their Trust and Safety Division.
 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 $17 billion annually and grew the IAB 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, Cars.com, & Sony Online Ventures. Greg also built the Interactive division at the world’s leading direct marketing agency, Wunderman, a subsidiary of Young & Rubicam.
Greg serves on the Board of Directors for Rapt, Inc. in San Francisco, Allyes in China (recently sold to Focus Media). He is on the Advisory Boards of other venture-backed businesses Adify [Internet Networks], Fraudwall [Search], Veoh [Online Video], Tremor Media [Online Video], Vizu [Internet Polling Network], ZenZui [Mobile] and myYearbook [Social Networking] -- plus non-profits SEMPO, IAB Mexico and 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.
 Richard Jalichandra
Richard is an experienced senior internet executive, with the rare distinction of having worked on all four legs of the media stool: as a client; running several agencies; at several large publishers; and working for an ad network. As an experienced M&A veteran, he’s also been intimately involved in a billion dollars of Internet acquisitions on both the buy and sell sides.
Currently, he is serving as the CEO of Technorati, the popular blog search engine. Most recently, he was SVP of Corporate Development for Exponential, the parent company of Tribal Fusion, one of the US’ largest ad networks. Before that, he was SVP of Business Development for Fox Interactive Media, looking after strategy and business development for all of FIM’s properties including MySpace, Foxsports.com, IGN, AmericanIdol.com, Rotten Tomatoes, AskMen, Scout.com and GameSpy among others. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Business & Corporate Development at IGN Entertainment. In that role, Richard was instrumental in creating and executing the media roll-up strategy that led to IGN being acquired by News Corp for $650 million.
Before joining IGN, Richard led the national accounts team at Terra Lycos, was Vice President of Business Development at Neopost Online, served as Senior Vice President/Managing Director of Answerthink, and founded K23 Creative Services in Singapore. He has also worked on the client side with brands like Ford Motor Company, IBM and Siemens, and also has run two marketing agencies. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance from the University of Washington.
 Rick Lewis
Rick Lewis joined USVP in 2004. Rick spent six years in engineering and product development leadership roles at startups and market-leading companies. For Walt Disney Imagineering, Rick oversaw the development of project management software that has been deployed on dozens of large-scale construction projects, including a major theme park. Rick also co-founded and managed product development at a software startup that was funded by Parametric Technology Corporation. Rick was previously a software engineer at Autodesk, and has held positions at Sun Microsystems, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and McKinsey & Company.
Rick focuses on information technology investments, and is particularly interested in mobile applications and content, games and game platforms, enterprise software, and emerging consumer Internet businesses. Rick is closely involved with USVP companies Intermolecular, Instantis, and myYearbook.com.
Rick has published his research on computer aided design and is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California at Davis (Summa Cum Laude), an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with Distinction.
He is a member of the board of directors of the San Francisco nonprofit Real Options for City Kids, which provides services such as after-school tutoring and sports clinics.
 Chris Fralic
Chris Fralic joined First Round Capital in 2006. Chris was most recently VP of Business Development at del.icio.us, which was acquired by Yahoo! in December 2005, focusing on distribution partnerships to integrate del.icio.us across a broad set of browsers, tools and publishing partners.
Chris previously spent 6 years at eBay, and his last position there was a combination ad sales and business development role helping entertainment companies such as Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Music Group, Apple and Netflix reach and connect with eBay users. Chris previously led the Entertainment categories, managing the transaction, platform and supply/demand aspects of the books, movies and music marketplaces on eBay in the United States. Chris had been the VP of Business Development at Half.com, which was acquired by eBay in June 2000. Chris was one of the early employees of Half.com, where he helped develop many parts of the business including fund raising, content licensing, the affiliate program, supply and distribution partnerships, and advertising and sponsorships sales.
Chris has over 20 years of technology industry experience, including significant Internet sales and business development roles since 1996. He was Vice President of Business Development at Nextron Communications, a Safeguard Scientifics funded startup focusing on web site development technology and services. He was Director of Business Development for the Enterprise division of America Online, which provided secure remote access and virtual private network services to businesses.
At Oracle Corporation, Chris was Internet Account Manager for the national industry group responsible for Cable, Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications companies. His focus was on Oracle’s early Internet offerings including Web Application Servers and Commerce Servers for some of Oracle’s largest accounts such as AOL and Time Warner.
Earlier in his career, he held senior sales and management roles in the computer reseller and consulting services industry for companies including The Computer Factory, BusinessLand, ComputerLand/Vanstar, and CoreTech, where he was responsible for over $100 million in hardware, services, and consulting sales.
He currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Leader to Leader Institute (www.leadertoleader.org - formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.) He has previously served on the Retail Advisory Councils of both NARM and VSDA, the retail trade associations for the music and movie industries, and the Advisory Board of the Library Portal Project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has taught graduate-level classes at Temple, Rutgers and Eastern University, and has spoken at numerous industry events including Gartner Group’s Retailvision, Jupiter’s Plug.in, and DigitalHollywood’s Media Summit.
Chris earned his BS in Finance from Villanova University, and his MBA from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia
 Ronald Conway
Ronald Conway was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) He now invests independently as an angel investor and was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top "dealmakers" in 2006.
Ron worked with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions (1973-1979), Altos Computer Systems, as a co-founder, President and CEO, (1979-1990) and Personal Training Systems (PTS) as CEO (1991-1995). PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft (Nasdaq SKIL).
Ron has served/serves on Boards/Advisory Boards including: The Red Herring Magazine, AtWeb (sold to Netscape/AOL), Facebook, Plaxo, Photobucket, Digg.com, SendMail, Bright Mail, Ask Jeeves, Napster, SNOCAP (co founder), Soliel Securities, Rupture, StepUp (sold to Intuit), Gerson Lehrman Group, Associated Content, Edgeio, RockYou, BetZip, ScanScout, Zappos, Trulia, Simply Hired, Stumble Upon, and Fraudwall, an anti Click Fraud company (co-founder).
He is actively involved in numerous philanthropic causes including Vice Chairman of UCSF Medical Foundation in San Francisco, Development committee of UCLA, and Ronald McDonald House at Stanford and the Benefit Committee of the Tiger Woods Foundation.
 Spencer Rhodes
Spencer Rhodes is an angel investor and investment industry executive in San Francisco. As a member of Harvard Angels, Golden Gate Angles, and The Keiretzu Forum, he evaluates hundreds of startups per year looking for the next big thing. Spencer was one of the first investors in MyYearbook.com and has worked with CEO Geoff Cook on internet initiatives for over ten years. In his professional life, Spencer is a Managing Director at Tradewinds Investment Management L.P., a hedge fund based in Sausalito, California. Prior to joining Tradewinds, Spencer was a Vice President at BlackRock, a leading investment firm with over $1.3 trillion under management. At BlackRock, Spencer worked with some of the world's largest institutional investors and covered both equity and fixed income strategies.
Spencer began his career with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London where he coordinated European deal flow and due diligence for the firm's $50m Strategic Venture Capital Fund and later became Business Manager of the Equities Division. In the community, Spencer is Chairman of the Harvard Club of San Francisco, a co-founder of Harvard Angels, and a member of the Steering Committee for both The Friends of the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and The International Forum of The World Affairs Council of Northern California. Spencer holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation and studied as a Congress Bundestag Scholar in Germany. He earned a BA with honors from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Gavin M. Roy
Gavin M. Roy is the Chief Technology Officer for myYearbook.com and is a long-time PHP developer, an active open source evangelist and is very active in the PostgreSQL community.
With more than 20 years of programming experience and a noted speaker on web application development, he has been a key player in the formation of several open source projects and online communities including Framewerk.org, the GameSurge IRC Network and Pathetic.org. Gavin has also worked closely with internet startup companies and established retailers in providing system analysis services and architecture strategy. As previous maintainer of the Zend Developer Zone, contributing to open source projects and open source advocacy efforts remains a priority. Gavin also specializes in Internet Security and volunteers his time with federal law enforcement agencies to strengthen responsibility on the internet.
Gavin attended California State University Fullerton and majored in Art History. He now lives outside of Philadelphia and is married to Michelle, as well as a devoted father to two sons, Alexander and Nickolas, and a daughter, Eden.
William Alena
William manages all advertising related revenue and marketing promotions for myYearbook. His internet marketing expertise allows myYearbook.com to best leverage its heavily trafficked site.
Prior to joining myYearbook William was the Director of Internet Development for Scholastic, Vice President of sales for Rising Tide Studios and an early employee of DoubleClick, one of the industries original leaders.
 Becki Heller
A graduate of New York University, Becki began her career in journalism working for such notable magazines as Time Out New York, Rolling Stone and MTV Magazine. For the past four years Becki served as an editor for the book publishing house St. Martin's Press. While there, Becki specialized in pop culture books and young adult novels. Through her work with young adults, she had the pleasure of doing business with the young adult marketing and entertainment firm Alloy Media, the premier teen book packager who created such notable novels as The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl.
Over the course of the years Becki has interviewed and created articles on countless celebrities and music icons. Some of the most notable books Becki edited during her time at St. Martin's include The Autobiography of Donovan by sixties folk icon Donovan, I hope you are all happy now by Grammy award nominated guitarist Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online by digital youth specialist and creator of Ypulse Anastasia Goodstein.
 Laura Sierra
I graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Government and developed an interest in accounting after working with various small businesses facing growth challenges. After obtaining a Master’s in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, I worked two busy seasons with Ernst & Young in New York as part of their external audit group, where I performed financial statement audits across a number of different industries. I also participated in the outsourced internal audit of a large corporation facing revenue accounting challenges at the onset of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.
Afterwards I worked as an internal auditor for a publicly-traded natural gas company with international operations. The combination of audit and general accounting experience across companies of various sizes has given me a deeper understanding of the objectives and associated risks of profit-driven ventures. I have also gained a basis for comparison of best practices, including proper accounting procedures and systems of internal controls.
|
|
|
Recent Press Releases
Management & Board
 |
Catherine Cook
Founder, Product Guru. Public Relations.
Started myYearbook in Montgomery High School in NJ as a high school
sophomore.
|
 |
David Cook
Founder, Product Guru. Member Support.
Started myYearbook with Catherine. Responsible for expanding into
college.
|
 |
Geoff Cook
CEO. First Investor. Older Brother.
Past: Founded and sold EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com to The Thomson
Corporation. Harvard '00.
|
 |
Don Eyer
VP Operations - Safety.
Past: Built Trust and Safety for eBay and Half.com. 23 years in law enforcement. BA from Colorado State in Criminal Justice and Education.
|
 |
Mike Amarosa
Safety Advisor.
Past: Deputy Commissioner for Technological Development for NYPD where he was directly responsible for 9-1-1 for the city of New York. JD, New York Law School.
|
 |
Greg Stuart
Advertising Advisor.
Past: CEO of IAB leading industry from $6B in 2001 to $17B today and grew IAB 500%.
|
 |
Richard Jalichandra
Strategic Advisor.
Present: CEO of Technorati. Past: SVP of Business Development for Fox Interactive Media. Instrumental in $650M IGN deal.
|
 |
Rick Lewis
Director. Venture Capitalist, USVP
Past: Walt Disney Imagineering. Sun. McKinsey. Autodesk. MBA, Harvard Business School.
|
 |
Chris Fralic
Board Observer. Venture Capitalist, First Round Capital
Past: VP Bus Dev at del.icio.us. Ebay. Early Half.com employee developing fund raising, content licensing, affiliate program, partnerships, advertising sales.
|
 |
Ron Conway
Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP
Past: Named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top "dealmakers" in 2006.
|
 |
Spencer Rhodes
Angel Investor. Strategic Advisor.
Present: Managing Director, Tradewinds Investment Management. Past: Vice President at BlackRock, Venture Capital at Merrill Lynch, Harvard Business School.
|
 |
Gavin Roy
Chief Technical Officer.
Past: Database & PHP Expert. Framewerk.org . PostgreSQL community member.
|
 |
William Alena
VP Advertising.
Past: Built Scholastic's advertising business. Doubleclick.
|
 |
Becki Heller
Editorial Director.
Past: Time Out New York, Rolling Stone, MTV, St. Martin's Press.
|
 |
Laura Sierra
Controller.
Past: Ernst & Young. MPA, McCombs School of Business. BA, Harvard.
|
|
