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Wil Merritt
Chief Executive Officer
Prior to coming aboard as CEO of Zooppa, Wil made a career at the intersection of media and technology. For four years he served as a Senior Vice President for the Corbis Corporation, Bill Gates' wholly owned private digital media company. Wil also spent eighteen years with Time–Warner, Inc. in posts around the globe including President for Europe/Middle East/Africa for the Time and Fortune Publishing Division.
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Aaron Gallion
Director of Business Development
Aaron is an industry veteran, with a diverse background across multiple disciplines in marketing and advertising. He has worked in major advertising and marketing agencies, managed large teams, and sold for both national and international publishers. He has over 13 years of experience bringing marketing solutions to a wide variety of clients. When not at work, he can be found on the golf course, most likely in a bunker.
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Josh Barnes
Senior Product Manager, Zooppa
Josh has spent six years in online advertising, at Travelocity, Microsoft, and a small startup in San Francisco that you’ve never heard of. He was born and raised in Seattle, moved to San Francisco to pursue a career in traditional advertising, but happily got distracted by new media. Josh got an MBA from Seattle University in 2007, and has a B.S. in Cellular Biology from the University of Washington.
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Tosh Meston
Director of Engineering, Zooppa
Prior to joining Zooppa, Meston was the software development manager of the Myspace Developer Platform team. Before to MySpace, Meston worked as a software architect at Blue Dot Inc., as well as Vizrea Corporation, which was acquired by Microsoft for its innovative media sharing service. Before Vizrea, Meston was a software developer at Microsoft for nine years where he worked on Microsoft Project and Outlook Web Access. Meston holds a B.S. in Physics from Brigham Young University.
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Michael Burlin
Marketing Manager, Zooppa
Michael is an aspiring marketer focused on digital media strategy. Previous to Zooppa, Michael managed search marketing campaigns for online advertiser Marchex. He also spent time at Modo Group, a management consultancy, developing strategy for brands like Microsoft and Grupo Modelo and briefly managed a rock club in downtown Seattle. Michael holds a B.A. in Anthropology from UVa. and is currently pursuing his Master of Communication in Digital Media at UW. When he’s not at work, Michael is probably riding his bike around town or eating Mexican food.
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Julia Copley
Operations Manager, Zooppa
Julia is a chronic startup supporter. Before coming onboard at Zooppa, she managed assignments for the content team at Lurn, an online marketing education company. She has also worked as copywriter/editor, general coordinator, and business manager for startups that are still under your radar. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from St. Mary's College of Maryland.
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Sarah Bott
Vice President, Sales
Born in London, Sarah has spent her life living on various continents from Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. After spending thirteen years in traditional advertising, including nine years with the TIME and FORTUNE publishing division in Sales and Marketing, Sarah joined the Zooppa team in 2010. She has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Marketing.
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Nancy Bowman
Crowdsourcing Brand Strategist, Zooppa
Nancy is a seasoned, international advertising & marketing executive with a background in the entertainment industry. Prior to joining Zooppa, Nancy was the U.S. Advertising & Marketing Director for Transcontinental Media (the largest publisher in Canada) representing 20 magazines and 200 web sites to the U.S. market. Nancy spent three years as the Eastern Advertising Manager/Music for Billboard, worked as a video producer in Los Angeles and has an advertising agency background in Toronto.
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Steve Rau
Crowdsourcing Brand Strategist, Zooppa
Steve spent 20+ years in Europe, first as USA Today’s, then Forbes’ European Advertising Director. Prior to moving to London, he managed an independent media sales company in Asia and was an Advertising Director for two national publications. Steve has extensive contacts in the media and marketing communities within Europe, US and Asia. His long-term commercial and strategic vision is combined with a drive and a passion for the advertising and media world.
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Jessie Carter
Partner Program Manager, Zooppa
Jessie is very excited to join the Zooppa team! Prior to coming aboard, she worked at Phoenix Pictures in Los Angeles and as a casting associate and producer for several television programs. Jessie received her degree in TV/Film Production and Theatre Arts from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.
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Ian Fraser
Community Manager, Zooppa
Ian Fraser is a Pacific Northwest native, hailing from the sprawling metropolis of Cle Elum, WA, population: 1782. He received his degree in Theatre Arts from Western Washington University in Bellingham. After 10-ish years of acting and Space Needle elevator operating, Ian moved to New York in '06 where he worked in various roles at iNDEMAND Networks, honing his Howard Stern and movie watching skills. In that time he also earned a professional certificate in Digital Video Production at NYU. He is very excited to join the Zooppa team and explore this new avenue in social marketing.
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T.A. McCann
Management Advisor
T.A. is the founder and CEO of Gist, an online service that helps build stronger business relationships. In addition to advising Zooppa, T.A. has previously worked for Vulcan Capital and Polaris Venture Partners, and has held senior positions at Microsoft.
Development Team
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Michele Gerarduzzi
Web Developer
Michele fell in love with computers in 1984, when his father brought home an Olivetti M20. It was all downhill from there: Michele spent way too many hours in front of a keyboard and a screen. Then came the World Wide Web, and he decided to build a career out of it. Holding a degree in Computer Science from the University of Venice, Michele is interested in all facets of web applications, with a particular interest in frontend development. Known to have a passion for digital photography, design and typography, he is a fan of the Seattle music scene both past and present and has a steadily growing collection of baseball hats.
Board of Directors
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Moshe Bar
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Moshe is an investor (and former serial entrepreneur). He is currently a general partner at Atlantic Capital Partners. Furthermore, he is also a board member of H-Farm Ventures in Venice, Italy. He has founded several successful software companies and acts often as an angel investor. He is the author of a number of text books on computer science and was a senior editor for Byte Magazine for six years. He taught computer science at Tel Aviv University and was a career officer in the Israel Defense Forces.
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Riccardo Donadon
A pioneer in online marketing, Riccardo has helped found several high tech companies in Italy including Mall Italy Lab and E-TREE. In 2005 Riccardo founded H-Farm with the objective of fostering innovation and building successful startups.