Directors

John Nardone, Chairman and CEO

A globally-respected marketing innovator, John Nardone is sought out by many of the world's most prestigious brands for his insights into creating brand relevance. Valued for his client-side perspective as a veteran packaged goods and interactive marketer, John has been a trusted advisor to senior management of many of the world's well-known brands. Before joining [x+1] in 2008, he served as Co-President and Chief Client Officer of MMA, where he helped some of the world's most prestige brands apply business rigor to their marketing. He served as President, International at Modem Media where he led the agency's global expansion with mergers and acquisitions in London, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, France, and Brazil. During his 20-year career, he has achieved many firsts, including placing the first paid ads on the Internet, establishing the first online media pricing model, and launching some of the first websites for consumer products, among many other historic accomplishments.

John's vision and innovation have earned him many industry awards. He was honored as a Media AllStar by MediaWeek magazine and named by Advertising Age as one of the Top 10 most quoted people in marketing for three successive years. He has delivered more than 150 speeches to venture capitalists and senior marketing, advertising, and media executives around the world. He has served on committees for the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's), Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Prior to Modem Media, John spent seven years leading established and new brands for Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. While at P&G, he was instrumental in developing the market launch plans for Aleve. At PepsiCo, he led the development and launch of Stolichnaya Oranj, which was named best new product launch of 1994 by Beverage Digest.

He holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a BA from Duke University.

Rich LeFurgy, Director

Rich is a principal at Archer, a consultancy that advises clients on online advertising and marketing strategy, as well as interactive advertising sales. His clients at Archer have included America Online Inc., Google and Real Networks.

Prior to his work at Archer, Rich was a general and venture partner at WaldenVC, a San Francisco venture capital fund that invests in digital media and software companies. He focused on both traditional and interactive marketing and media companies. Rich worked closely with top entrepreneurs to build successful companies that generated millions of dollars in market capitalization. During his tenure at WaldenVC, he sat on the boards of interactive advertising and media companies including IGN Networks, Lot 21 and All Advantage.

In 1996, Rich co-founded the Interactive Advertising Bureau and was elected IAB chairman and director for five consecutive years. He established the association's governance, vision, mission and structure. Rich also instituted the industry's first benchmark revenue report with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Today, he serves as a member of the Executive Committee and heads special projects.

Rich has been a leading change agent in the interactive media and advertising industry. In 1995, Rich started Starwave Corporation, one of the first online advertising sales organizations. He began selling advertising on Starwave's ESPN.com, NFL.com, NBA.com and NASCAR.com. Following The Walt Disney Company's investment in Starwave in 1997, he became senior vice president of JV Buena Vista Internet Group, where he oversaw online advertising sales for ABCNews.com and Disney on-line, as well as the sports and sports league of JV's ESPN.com.

Rich has long been recognized as a leader in the interactive industry and was awarded the ad:tech’s Industry Achievement Award in 2008 as well as the IAB's first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. In 2000, he was one of the first inductees into Advertising Age's Interactive Hall of Fame, along with Jeff Bezos, Jerry Yang and Steve Case. Rich is also the founding chairman of the Bay Area Interactive Group, an industry association which brings together members of the interactive community in the San Francisco Bay Area for education and networking.

Rich holds a bachelor's degree in advertising from the S.I Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He currently serves on the ad:tech Advisory Board.

Jay N. Goldberg, Director

Jay has been a General Partner of Hudson Ventures since 1996. He was the founder of OPCENTER, LLC, a privately held company that provides help desk and computer operations services, and the founder and Chairman of Lexstra PLC, a London based consulting company.

From 1990 through 1994, Jay served as Chairman and CEO of Image Business Systems Corp. a company that provided document management and workflow software. In 1989, he founded Zeitech, Inc., a company which provided computer implementation professionals through its five national offices. Under Jay's direction, Zeitech appeared twice on Inc. Magazine's 500 List of America's fastest growing companies and was sold in January 1996 to Career Horizons, Inc. In 1986 Jay purchased Money Management Systems, Inc. (MMS) from Ziff-Davis. MMS sold software and services to banks and broker-dealers for securities trading activities. In 1989 MMS was sold to Sungard Inc. From 1968 to 1985, Jay was Chairman and CEO of Software Design Associates, a systems development firm that grew to 600 people, which was sold to AGS Computers Inc.

Currently, Mr. Goldberg serves on the Boards of several of Hudson's portfolio companies, including: MTS, [x+1], GlobalServe, and OpenService. He is the past Chairman of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, and Treasurer of the Governor's Committee for Scholastic Achievement. Mr. Goldberg is also a member of the Board of Overseers of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the faculty of Arts and Sciences of New York University, the Board of Trustees of Montefiore Medical Center, The Arbitrage Fund and is a Trustee of the Charles Babbage Foundation.

Mark Wright, Director

Prior to joining Blue Chip Venture Company in 2001, Mark was the founding CEO of @plan. Founded in 1996, @plan became the industry standard market planning software system for online advertising and online retailing.

In the late 1980's he founded Inforum which became the industry standard market planning software system for hospitals and other large healthcare institutions. Both @plan and Inforum completed IPOs and were subsequently acquired. The valuation of each company, at the time of sale, was in excess of $100 million. Prior to starting @plan, he was Executive Vice President of Ericson Marketing Communications, an advertising agency. Mark works in Blue Chip's Stamford, Connecticut office and leads Blue Chip's Marketing and Media Services practice. Mark is an avid hiker and outdoorsman.

His favorite entrepreneurial moment happened during the @plan IPO road show when his chauffeured car was confused by thousands of screaming rock fans as the limo of the Dave Mathews Band.

Mark received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and a Masters of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.

Bob Hower, Director

Bob Hower is a General Partner at ATV (Advanced Technology Ventures) where he focuses on investments in information technology, specifically the infrastructure, software and services, and consumer technology sectors. He has been with ATV since 2002 and is an active board member of Acme Packet (NASDAQ:APKT), ChannelAdvisor, Sanovi, Wave7 Optics, and [x+1]. Named one of Forbes Midas list "best dealmakers" in 2007, Bob was instrumental in Acme Packet's 2006 public offering, one of the most successful IPOs in the communications sector this decade.

Bob has extensive operating experience, including serving as Vice President of Sales at LHS Group (EMEA), where he built the company's Enhanced Services Division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and as a member of the senior management team at Priority Call Management (PCM). Prior to LHS Group's acquisition of PCM in 1999, Bob helped grow PCM's revenue from approximately $3.5 million to $45 million. Bob's management background also includes sales and marketing roles at Lotus Development and General Mills.

Bob first joined the venture capital community as a Director at BancBoston Ventures where he focused on the telecommunications and IT infrastructure sectors, and led investments in Telephotonics (acquired by DuPont) and AccessLan (acquired by AFC). Early in his career, Bob worked in commercial real estate development at Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, negotiating lease transactions in excess of $100 million. He earned an M.B.A. from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a B.A., Cum Laude, from Harvard College.