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.

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  Jean Kovacs

  Ms. Kovacs has over 30 years experience directing technology companies and a track record of using her strategic business skills and background to deliver exceptional results with growing enterprises. Most recently, she was CEO and co-founder of Comergent Technologies, a leader in the enterprise software space. In this role, Ms. Kovacs spearheaded Comergent’s overall solutions and services strategy, and oversaw the company’s daily operations including product development, sales, marketing, and operations along with her executive team. Comergent became a world-class organization, committed to providing real-world business solutions to global enterprises. In late 2006, Comergent was sold to Sterling Commerce (a division of AT&T) and Ms. Kovacs stayed on as SVP, Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances.

  Prior to Comergent, Kovacs co-founded Qualix Group, a developer of reliability software in distributed computing environments. As co-founder and Executive Vice President, Kovacs was responsible for managing and directing the engineering, marketing, services, and telesales departments, and was closely involved in the Company’s IPO. Kovacs has also held positions in sales, marketing, and support at Frame Technology, Sun Microsystems, and Compugraphic Corporation.

  Kovacs has been profiled by influential publications such as Fortune Magazine, The Financial Times, Computerworld, Internet World and InfoWorld. She was also named to the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Business Journal’s list of Most Influential Women in Business in 2008.

  Ms. Kovacs holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University. Jean is also Board Chair of BUILD, a non-profit organization that works with high-school students in under-resourced communities, helping them learn business skills, start companies and ultimately get into college.