Cella Irvine has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the digital, media and technology industries. Most recently, she was CEO of The New York Times Company's About Group, where she led extensive efforts in contextual advertising – a main driver of About.com's revenue. Under Cella's leadership, About dramatically expanded its content and language offerings.
Prior to About, she was Chief Administrative Officer of Digitas, an ad agency unit of Publicis, where she was responsible for operational, administrative and governance functions. Before Digitas, Cella was Global Head of Strategic Planning and then Chief Operations Officer for a business unit of Marsh, Inc., a risk consulting firm. She has also previously held management roles at Hearst and Prodigy.
She received her B.A. in History from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Jeff Babka is the COO and CFO of Vibrant, the world's largest provider of premium contextual advertising. He has 35 years of experience in financial management of public and private companies, with a specific focus in the technology and telecommunications sectors.
Most recently, Jeff was CFO of Sophos, a global IT Security company based in Oxford, UK. Under Jeff's direction, Sophos made great progress on its IPO roadmap, having selected its underwriter slate and getting to within weeks of filing its F-1 with the SEC. In June, 2010, Sophos was acquired by Apax Partners in a transaction valuing the Company in excess of $830 million.
Prior to joining Sophos, Jeff was Senior Vice President and CFO of NeuStar, Inc., where he led NeuStar's efforts in support of its $700 million Initial Public Offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange on June 29, 2005, and $700 million follow-on offering in December, 2005. In December 2005, NeuStar was awarded "IPO of the Year" for 2005 by International Financing Review and Renaissance Capital.
In 2006, he was the recipient of the Northern Virginia Technology Council's Public Company CFO of the Year Award.
Sheila Buckley is CRO at Vibrant, the world's largest provider of premium contextual advertising. She has more than two decades of senior advertising sales leadership.
Before joining Vibrant in March 2012, Sheila was SVP, Digital, Mobile and Cross-Platform Ad Sales at The Weather Channel, where she was instrumental in Weather.com's ranking as #1 Digital Ad Sales team by the IAB/Jack Myers, and generating exponential profit.
Prior to The Weather Channel, Sheila held a range of high-level positions at Time Warner, including Associate Publisher and Publisher at Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids, where she was responsible for advertising sales, marketing, and research for the publications, websites, and custom publishing. Under Sheila's leadership, Sports Illustrated for Kids was included for the first time in 2001 on "Adweek's Hot List."
Sheila received a Bachelor of Science from the School of Management at Boston College.
Martin Forbes oversees the worldwide operations of Vibrant, working to increase global revenue and profitability. Prior to joining Vibrant, Martin was a Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP UK working in the Management Transaction Advisory Group. Spending 9½ years specializing in private equity transactions, Martin advised senior management and corporations with investment strategies. Martin graduated from Leeds University in 1997 with Joint Honors in Economics and Management Studies and was admitted to the Association of Taxation Technicians and the Chartered Institute of Taxation in May 2000 and 2001 respectively.
Anna Kassoway is the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Creative. Anna is responsible for the company's corporate brand positioning and customized product solutions for strategic partners. During her time at Vibrant, she has helped drive the evolution of the company's product suite, which today reaches more than 250 million unique users worldwide per month. Anna oversees the creative department which provides Vibrant's custom product solutions for clients including Microsoft, Unilever, and Chrysler. Prior to joining Vibrant, she was the Regional Media Director for Beyond Interactive, the interactive arm of Grey Worldwide. In this role she managed multi-million dollar global media campaigns. Anna is an active member of the IAB, OPA, Advertising Women of NY, and the ABM.
Derrick Horner has represented start-up and public companies for more than 15 years, with particular expertise in the interactive advertising space. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President of Vizible Corporation, a Canadian-based software firm that provided online tools for consumers to create immersive 3D social media environments. At Vizible, Derrick set corporate strategy and managed all legal activity, leading the company to a successful acquisition by Open Text Corporation. Derrick also served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Massive Incorporated, the world's first dynamic in-game advertising network. He represented Massive in connection with its high-profile acquisition by Microsoft Corporation. He also negotiated and closed the company's critical in-game advertising transactions. Derrick is a former Senior Vice President at 24/7 Real Media, Inc., a leading provider of Internet advertising services and technology, where he shared responsibility for the company's global legal affairs.
Derrick graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in economics and received his J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School.
Jason Richman leads Vibrant's global product strategy and development efforts. He is a digital media veteran with more than 15 years of experience developing products for traditional media and startups including NBC Universal, Bertelsmann, Scholastic and CMGI. Previously, Jason worked at NBC Universal where he built and scaled new products and services across their network of digital properties including Hulu, NBC, iVillage, Olympics, Universal Pictures and their cable properties. Prior to NBCU, Jason worked at top 50 e-tailer Scholastic Inc., where he managed $250M+ in ecommerce revenue and WeightWatchers.com where he built out their mobile product suite.
Stacey Hafers is Senior Vice President of Finance and Vibrant's principal accounting executive responsible for global financial management, reporting and analysis. She develops internal and external systems and processes that are compliant and have improved reporting capabilities. Stacey has over 20 years of accounting expertise with companies which include Village Voice Media, Walker Digital Media, and OSI Corporation. A licensed CPA, Stacey also holds an MBA from Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa, and a BS in Accounting and Finance from the University of Tampa.
Brian White leads Vibrant's US publisher development team, which is responsible for growing the company's distribution network of top-tier partner Web sites. Brian has more than 15 years of sales and development management experience. He and his team have helped grow Vibrant's network to include more than 6,000 premium publishers. Prior to Vibrant, Brian served as Director of Strategic Business Development at Valueclick, managing a national business development and sales planning team. During his tenure, Valueclick grew to become the second-largest ad network in the US. From 1999 to 2004, Brian worked for 24/7 Real Media leading divisions including business development, sales and product development in both the UK and the US.