Contact Information: Contact: Adrian Richardson Edelman for JiWire +1 650-762-2949 (office) arichardson@ar-edelman.com
Growing Media Company JiWire Appoints David Courtney as New CEO
Media and Technology Industry Veteran Partners With JiWire's Visionary Founder Kevin McKenzie to Lead Company's Next Stage of Growth
| Source: JiWire
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - October 21, 2009) - Capitalizing on the company's rapid
growth, JiWire today announced the appointment of David Courtney as CEO of
the leading mobile audience media company, which reaches more than 20
million unique users per month through its public Wi-Fi advertising
channel. Kevin McKenzie, JiWire's founder and president, selected Courtney
based on his proven track record of success in building industry-leading
digital media infrastructure businesses such as Adify and TiVo. Courtney
and McKenzie will work in close partnership to continue to accelerate
JiWire's growth and to expand its leadership position in the U.S. and
overseas.
At TiVo Courtney held a variety of senior executive positions -- he was
executive vice president of Worldwide Operations and Administration and as
group executive of Corporate Products and Services he oversaw two of TiVo's
three operating divisions. He also played a key role in taking the company
from early start-up to household-name. During Courtney's tenure at TiVo,
the company grew from its pre-product phase in 1999 to 5 million
subscribers and $250 million in revenue six years later.
As president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Adify,
the leading vertical ad network management and media services company, he
helped guide and manage the company's successful
multi-hundred-million-dollar acquisition by Cox Enterprises in 2008. Most
recently, Courtney served as an executive-in-residence at Venrock, one of
Silicon Valley's premier venture capital firms and an early-stage investor
in Adify.
"Dave adds deep financial and operational experience in the media and
technology markets to the team at JiWire," says Kevin McKenzie, founder and
president of JiWire. "Looking ahead at our ambitious plans for growth, I
recognize that a strong partner is the key to creating a winning team. With
Dave taking the day-to-day helm, we're ready to take this company to the
next level and scale it even more rapidly than we have to-date." McKenzie
will continue to focus on growth strategy, platform development and R&D
initiatives that provide core differentiation in the market and increase
the value of the company.
"JiWire is a fast-paced leader in the burgeoning market for on-the-go
media," said Courtney, JiWire's new CEO. "I've had the opportunity to work
with some great digital media infrastructure companies in the past, and
JiWire has the technology, the vision, and the opportunity to extend its
leadership position in this enormous market and achieve similar success.
The team at JiWire has built incredible expertise in engaging on-the-go
audiences with a location-based, interactive and measurable solution. With
the company's current growth trajectory, it's clear that JiWire is
delivering on the critical needs of both its network partners and
advertising clients in this dynamically changing media market."
JiWire is the first company to use wireless Internet access as a medium for
advertising, creating a channel for advertisers to deliver interactive and
measurable messages to on-the-go audiences such as business travelers,
affluent consumers and millennials. By collaborating with more than 30
large and small operators of Wi-Fi hotspots, JiWire has aggregated a new
media channel that reaches people while they are going about their daily
lives, combining the best of out-of-home mobile and online advertising.
JiWire places ads on login-pages of 30,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in cafés, hotels,
airports and soon on planes as the result of a new partnership with Row 44.
Prior to his tenure at TiVo, Courtney was a managing director at J.P.
Morgan where he led the firm's High Technology Group in the U.S. Prior to
J.P. Morgan, he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, served on the
corporate business development staff at General Electric and was a
consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Courtney holds a bachelor's
degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School
of Business.
About JiWire
JiWire is the leading mobile audience media company, delivering advertising
across premier locations and devices. JiWire's breakthrough advertising
medium enables marketers to reach an influential mobile demographic at the
point-of-connection. JiWire's portfolio of blue-chip advertisers, combined
with its market-proven delivery platform and registry of hotspot locations,
enables wireless broadband networks and device manufacturers to leverage
advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access. For more
information, please visit www.jiwire.com or call (415) 877-4711.