Advisors

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  Mike Linton

  Mike Linton has been in marketing and general management for nearly 30 years. After graduating from Bowling Green State University and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, he began his career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble in 1980. He went on to Progressive Insurance, James River Paper Company and Remington in various Marketing and General Management positions. In 1999 Mike moved to Best Buy where he became its first ever Chief Marketing Officer responsible for all marketing, brand management, research, Customer Relationship Management, call centers, the Best Buy Advertising Agency and Public and Investor Relations. In late 2006 he moved to eBay, first in general management as the Senior Vice President of eBay Motors, Canada, Half.com and eBay Stores and then as the CMO. He left eBay in early 2009 and is currently consulting and writing for Forbes.com. He is also on the Board of Directors of Peet’s Coffee & Tea and serves on the advisory boards of a number of venture backed companies.

  Mike was named by Promotion Magazine as a Marketer of the Year in 2004 and by Ad Age as one of the most influential 30 marketers in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He has received two Effies and has been a speaker for Forrester, the Marketing Conference Board, the CMO Summit, Forbes CMO Summit, GMA Conference, P&G Alumni Reunion, Accenture Conference, Google National Sales Meeting, Ad Week and Retail Advertising Conference. He is a charter member of the Marketing-50, was elected to the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008, rang the opening bell at the NYSE and has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Fast Company and Promo Magazine.

  Mike is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and now lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two children.